<P> If no superintending tribunal of this nature were established, different courts might adopt different and even contradictory rules of decision; and the distractions, springing from these different and contradictory rules, would be without remedy and without end . Opposite determinations of the same question, in different courts, would be equally final and irreversible . </P> <P> Consistent with Justice Wilson's explanation, the power to issue writs of certiorari is invested in the highest court of every Commonwealth jurisdiction, in some way, shape, or manner . While some incorporate this remedy into their Constitutions, e.g., India, others treat it as an implied power of superior courts, e.g., Australia, but in all Commonwealth jurisdictions--as distinguished from their American counterpart--it has evolved into a general remedy for the correction of plain error, to bring decisions of an inferior court or tribunal or public authority before the superior court for review so that the court can determine whether to quash such decisions . </P> <P> In the United States, certiorari is most often seen as the writ that the Supreme Court of the United States issues to a lower court to review the lower court's judgment for legal error (reversible error) and review where no appeal is available as a matter of right . Before the Judiciary Act of 1891, the cases that could reach the Supreme Court were heard as a matter of right, meaning that the Court was required to issue a decision in each of those cases . That is, the Court had to review all properly presented appeals on the merits, hear oral argument, and issue decisions . As the United States expanded in the nineteenth century, the federal judicial system became increasingly strained, and the Supreme Court, which routinely took three months off every year, not surprisingly had a backlog of cases several years long . The Act solved these problems by transferring most of the court's direct appeals to the newly created Circuit Courts of Appeals, whose decisions in those cases would normally be final . The Supreme Court did not completely give up its judiciary authority, however, because it gained the ability to review the decisions of the courts of appeals at its discretion through writ of certiorari . </P> <P> Since the Judiciary Act of 1925 and the Supreme Court Case Selections Act of 1988, most cases cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States as a matter of right . A party who wants the Supreme Court to review a decision of a federal or state court files a "petition for writ of certiorari" in the Supreme Court . A "petition" is printed in booklet format and 40 copies are filed with the Court . If the Court grants the petition, the case is scheduled for the filing of briefs and for oral argument . A minimum of four of the nine Justices is required to grant a writ of certiorari, referred to as the "rule of four". The court denies the vast majority of petitions and thus leaves the decision of the lower court to stand without review; it takes roughly 80 to 150 cases each term . In the term that concluded in June 2009, for example, 8,241 petitions were filed, with a grant rate of approximately 1.1 percent . Cases on the paid certiorari docket are substantially more likely to be granted than those on the in forma pauperis docket . The Supreme Court is generally careful to choose only cases over which the Court has jurisdiction and which the Court considers sufficiently important, such as cases involving deep constitutional questions, to merit the use of its limited resources . See also Cert pool . While both appeals of right and cert petitions often present several alleged errors of the lower courts for appellate review, the Court normally grants review only of one or two questions presented in a certiorari petition . </P>

When does the supreme court issue a writ of certiorari
find me the text answering this question