# Writ of Certiorari A writ of certiorari ("cert") is the order by which the Supreme Court agrees to review a lower court's decision — the discretionary gate through which nearly every case reaches the Court. A losing party files a *petition for a writ of certiorari*; the Court grants it only if at least four of the nine justices vote to hear the case (the [[Rule of Four]]). The Court receives roughly 7,000–8,000 petitions a term and grants about 60–70 — a grant rate near one percent — so a denial of cert is the ordinary outcome, and it leaves the lower court's judgment standing without itself endorsing that ruling as precedent. Certiorari is *discretionary* review, distinct from the Court's rare mandatory jurisdiction. The single strongest predictor of a grant is a [[Circuit Split]] — a conflict among the courts of appeals that only the Supreme Court can resolve. The mechanics of the petition, the conference vote, and the branches around them are mapped in [[How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court]]. See also [[Shadow Docket]] — the emergency track that decides consequential matters without the full certiorari-and-merits process.