supreme court appeal

[Unregistered]

Ex lost physical custody on three separate attempts over several years.was ordered to pay support and back medical expenses that were never paid.Now has appealed to the supreme court stating it was basically the district court judges incompentancy that he lost. Do I have to answer this? Is there a time frame in which I am required to answer to the filing?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Is this an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States (commonly referred to as SCOTUS?) You can obtain a full explanation of the rules and the process on the website of the U.S. Supreme Court - U.S. Supreme Court Procedure - Writ of Certiorari. Specifically it states the following:

Parties who are not satisfied with the decision of a lower court must petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case. The primary means to petition the court for review is to ask it to grant a writ of certiorari. This is a request that the Supreme Court order a lower court to send up the record of the case for review. 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. In fact, the Court accepts 100-150 of the more than 7,000 cases that it is asked to review each year. Typically, the Court hears cases that have been decided in either an appropriate U.S. Court of Appeals or the highest Court in a given state (if the state court decided a Constitutional issue).

The Supreme Court has its own set of rules. According to these rules, four of the nine Justices must vote to accept a case. Five of the nine Justices must vote in order to grant a stay, e.g., a stay of execution in a death penalty case. Under certain instances, one Justice may grant a stay pending review by the entire Court.