In the early 1980s, the Supreme Court decided more than 150 cases a year. These days, it decides about half that many.
A couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court advocacy clinic at Yale Law School held a conference to explore the mystery of the court’s shrinking docket. Law professors presented data, theories and speculation. Expensive lawyers told rueful stories about can’t-miss cases that somehow did not make the cut.
Some participants blamed the newer justices, others their clerks. Some blamed Congress, saying it is not cranking out enough confusing legislation. And some blamed the Justice Department, which is filing fewer appeals.
But there emerged nothing like a definitive answer to why the court now selects perhaps 80 cases from more than 8,000 requests for review it receives every year.
How about “The Supreme Court is a politically charged piece of shit with a bunch of stodgy old partisans who pick and choose cases more selectively as they get older with no consequences for not bothering to do their annointed jobs?”
I think that’s a good start to understanding the shrinking docket.