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The rule of four is a practice by the US Supreme Court where if four justices agree a case is worth hearing, the Court will hear it. This ensures minority judges have a say in what cases are heard. The process of getting a case before the Supreme Court is complex, with judges reviewing over 7,000 applications each year. The rule of four prevents an imbalance of power caused by a majority of judges, as the balance of the Supreme Court can be influenced by politics.
The rule of four is a US Supreme Court practice that dictates that if four justices decide that a case is worth hearing, the Court will agree to hear it. This rule is designed to ensure that the majority of the court cannot control which cases are heard, as without it, minority judges may find themselves unable to hear cases of interest.
This custom was first adopted in 1891 and made public in 1924. It does not appear anywhere in the official rules of protocol for the Supreme Court, but it is considered official because it has been practiced for so long. For members of the public, the rule of four is an assurance that their cases have a chance to be heard before the Supreme Court, regardless of who sits on the court at any given time.
The process of getting a case before the Supreme Court is quite complex. Judges review over 7,000 applications each year and agree to hear only a handful of these cases. As a rule, appeals take the form of a request for an act of certiorari, a court order requiring the judges of first instance to send the Court of Cassation documents and materials relating to the case.
Before granting a writ of certiorari, judges must vote to decide whether or not the case has merit. In many cases, five Supreme Court justices dominate the court on particular issues, so the rule of four ensures that the four justices who often vote in the minority still have a say in what happens in court, preventing an imbalance of power that could be created by a majority of judges.
Most judges at any given time vary, depending on a variety of factors. Because justices are only appointed by the president of the United States when justices retire or die, the balance of the Supreme Court can be heavily influenced by the politics of who is in office when a justice is to be appointed, and by the politics of the Supreme Court are even constantly on the move. Judges rarely split into simple groups that always vote the same, as each judge has his or her own ideas about how the Constitution should be interpreted.
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