Approximately how many cases are appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court each year?

The Court receives approximately 7,000-8,000 petitions for a writ of certiorari each Term. A writ of certiorari is a request that the Supreme Court grant hearing on an appeal from a lower court ruling. The Court usually is not under any obligation to hear these cases, and it usually only does so if the case could have national significance, might harmonize conflicting decisions in the federal Circuit courts, and/or could have precedential value. The Court grants and hears oral argument in about 80 of the 7-8 thousand requested cases. To manage the high volume of cert petitions received by the Court each year the Court employs an internal case management tool known as the "cert pool." Currently, all justices except for Justice Alito participate in the cert pool.

The operation of the cert pool is as follows: Each participating Justice places his/her clerks in the pool. A copy of each petition received by the Court goes to the pool, is assigned to a random clerk from the pool, and that clerk then prepares and circulates a memo for all of the Justices participating in the pool. The writing law clerk may ask his/her Justice to call for a response to the petition, or any Justice may call for a response after the petition is circulated.

Criticisms of the pool include a petition may be disproportionately affected by which chambers' clerk writes the pool memo.