When the U.S. Supreme Court is asked to review a case, a petition for a writ of certiorari must be filed within 90 days of a lower court’s ruling. Each term, approximately 7,000 to 8,000 new petitions are filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. During its weekly conference–a private meeting of the justices–the court reviews petitions and decides whether or not to grant certiorari. The court accepts and hears arguments in about 80 cases per term and settles 100 or more cases without hearing arguments. Granting certiorari requires affirmative votes from four justices.^[1][2]

This page covers cases that were granted certiorari by SCOTUS for appellate review of a lower court’s ruling and cases that came to the court under its original jurisdiction, where the court considers the case without it having first been passed on by a lower court. Original jurisdiction cases typically involve disputes between two states.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued opinions in 60 cases during its October 2022 term. In this count, we included one case, Arizona v. Mayorkas, that was de-calendared and remanded to the lower court where SCOTUS instructed that it be dismissed as moot, and one case, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Cochran, that was consolidated when the opinion was released. SCOTUS reversed 42 lower court decisions (70 percent) and affirmed 17. This term's reversal rate was 1.3 percentage points lower than the average rate of reversal since 2007 (71.3 percent). Fourteen of the October 2022 term cases originated in the Ninth Circuit, the most from any circuit (including state courts). The Ninth Circuit had 11 cases reversed and three cases affirmed.

Since 2007, the Ninth Circuit had a reversal rate of 80.3 percent. That is the highest reversal rate, with the Sixth Circuit (80.0 percent) coming in second. Of the Article III circuits—the ordinal circuits, the D.C. Circuit, and the Federal Circuit—the court with the lowest rate of overturned decisions is the First Circuit at 60 percent.

Since 2007, SCOTUS has released opinions in 1,188 cases. Of those, it reversed a lower court decision 847 times (71.3 percent) while affirming a lower court decision 332 times (27.9 percent). In that time period, SCOTUS has decided more cases originating from the Ninth Circuit (233) than from any other circuit. The next-most is the Fifth Circuit, which had 95 decisions. During that span, SCOTUS overturned a greater number and percentage of cases originating from the Ninth Circuit (187, or 80.3 percent).

The Supreme Court hears and reaches decisions in an average of 74.3 cases each year. There are a number of major decisions SCOTUS can make—affirm a lower court's ruling, reverse it, affirm in part, and reverse in part. This data only examines when a court affirms or reverses a lower court's decision. The vast majority of SCOTUS cases originate in a lower court—either one of the 13 appeals circuits, state-level courts, or U.S. district courts. Original jurisdiction cases cannot be considered affirmed or reversed since SCOTUS is the first and only court that rules in the case.

This page compiles statistics going back to 2007 because that is the earliest year reliable data on cases by circuit is available on SCOTUSblog. If you know of earlier datasets that we could include here, please contact us.

Total data[edit]

Below is the total data ranging from 2007 to present listed by the circuit where the case originated. It also contains data from state courts, U.S. district courts, and original jurisdiction cases. Information from 2007 to 2021 was compiled from end-of-term data gathered by SCOTUSblog.^[3] Information from 2022 was compiled from our Supreme Court cases, October term 2022-2023 page, sourced directly from the court.

Data by term[edit]

Click on the tabs below to see decision data for each individual term. Terms generally run from the October of that year to the June of the following year. The 2017 term, for example, took place from October 2017 to June 2018. However, in rare cases, the term runs into July. The 2019 term, for example, ran from October 2019 to July 2020.

2022[edit]

See also: Supreme Court cases, October term 2022-2023

The court's 2022 term ran from October 2022 to June 2023. It decided 60 cases, reversing a lower court in 42 (70 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (14), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (11). Three circuits—the 4th, 10th, and the D.C. Circuit—had all their decisions reversed.

2021[edit]

See also: Supreme Court cases, October term 2021-2022

The court's 2021 term ran from October 2021 to June 2022. It decided 66 cases, reversing a lower court in 54 (81.8 percent) of them. The 9th Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (12), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (12). Six circuits—the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 9th, and D.C. Circuit—had all their decisions reversed, as did all the state courts.

2020[edit]

See also: Supreme Court cases, October term 2020-2021

The court's 2020 term ran from October 2020 to July 2021. It decided 69 cases, reversing a lower court in 55 (79.7 percent) of them. The 9th Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (16), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (15). Seven circuits, the 1st, 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th, D.C. Circuit, and the Federal Circuit had all of their decisions reversed.

2019[edit]

See also: Supreme Court cases, October term 2019-2020

The court's 2019 term ran from October 2019 to July 2020. It decided 69 cases, reversing a lower court in 46 (66.7 percent) of them. The 9th Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (10), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (9). Two circuits, the 1st and 7th, had all of their decisions reversed (one decision each).

2018[edit]

The court's 2018 term ran from October 2018 to June 2019. It decided 74 cases, reversing a lower court in 47 (63.5 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (14), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (12). One circuit, the Seventh (one), had all of its decisions reversed.

2017[edit]

The court's 2017 term ran from October 2017 to June 2018. It decided 74 cases, reversing a lower court in 52 (70.3 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (15), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (12). Three circuits, the First (one), Third (three), and Sixth (four), had all of their decisions reversed.

2016[edit]

The court's 2016 term ran from October 2016 to June 2017. It decided 71 cases, reversing a lower court in 56 (78.9 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (eight), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (seven). Four circuits, the Third (two), Seventh (two), Eighth (two), and Tenth (three), had all of their decisions reversed.

2015[edit]

The court's 2015 term ran from October 2015 to June 2016. It decided 87 cases, reversing a lower court in 55 (63.2 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (11), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (eight). The Eleventh Circuit was the only circuit to have all three of its decisions reversed.

2014[edit]

The court's 2014 term ran from October 2014 to June 2015. It decided 75 cases, reversing a lower court in 53 (70.7 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (16), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (10). Four circuits, the Second (one), Third (three), Seventh (three), and Eleventh (five), had all of their decisions reversed.

2013[edit]

The court's 2013 term ran from October 2013 to June 2014. It decided 75 cases, reversing a lower court in 55 (73.3 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (12), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (11). Two circuits, the Third (two) and Eighth (two), had all of their decisions reversed.

2012[edit]

The court's 2012 term ran from October 2012 to June 2013. It decided 78 cases, reversing a lower court in 56 (71.8 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (14), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (12). Four circuits, the First (one), Sixth (two), Eighth (two), and Eleventh (six), had all of their decisions reversed.

2011[edit]

The court's 2011 term ran from October 2011 to June 2012. It decided 75 cases, reversing a lower court in 47 (62.7 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (24), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (17). Two circuits, the Second (two) and Sixth (five), had all of their decisions reversed.

2010[edit]

The court's 2010 term ran from October 2010 to June 2011. It decided 82 cases, reversing a lower court in 57 (69.5 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (26), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (19). No circuit had all of its decisions reversed this term.

2009[edit]

The court's 2009 term ran from October 2009 to June 2010. It decided 83 cases, reversing a lower court in 59 (71.1 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (15) and was overturned the most times (11). The Fifth Circuit (four), Sixth Circuit (seven), Eighth Circuit (three), and D.C. Circuit (three) were the circuits to have all of their decisions reversed.

2008[edit]

The court's 2008 term ran from October 2008 to June 2009. It decided 79 cases, reversing a lower court in 60 (76.0 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (16), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (13). Seven circuits had all of their decisions reversed: Fourth (five), Sixth (five), Seventh (one), Eighth (four), Tenth (two), D.C. (one), and Federal (four).

2007[edit]

The court's 2007 term ran from October 2007 to June 2008. It decided 71 cases, reversing a lower court in 46 (64.8 percent) of them. The Ninth Circuit originated the most cases decided this term (10), and was also the circuit overturned the most times (eight). The Tenth Circuit was the only circuit to have all of its decisions (two) reversed.

The circuits[edit]

Not sure what circuit you live in? Check out our map below.

See also[edit]

• Supreme Court cases, October term 2022-2023
• Supreme Court cases, October term 2021-2022
• Supreme Court cases, October term 2020-2021
• Supreme Court cases, October term 2019-2020
• History of the Supreme Court
• Federal judicial appointments by president
• Article III, United States Constitution

Footnotes[edit]

v • e Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
Active justices	Chief justice: Roberts Associate justices: Alito • Barrett • Gorsuch • Jackson • Kagan • Kavanaugh • Sotomayor • Thomas
Senior justices	Breyer • Kennedy • O'Connor • Souter
Former chief justices	Burger • Chase • Ellsworth • Fuller • Hughes • Jay • Marshall • Rehnquist • Rutledge • Stone • Taft • Taney • Vinson • Waite • Warren • White
Former associate justices	Baldwin • Barbour • Black • Blackmun • Blair • Blatchford • Bradley • Brandeis • Brennan • Brewer • Brown • Burton • Butler • Byrnes • Campbell • Cardozo • Catron • Chase • Clark • Clarke • Clifford • Curtis • Cushing • Daniel • Davis • Day • Douglas • Duvall • Field • Fortas • Frankfurter • Ginsburg • Goldberg • Gray • Grier • Harlan I • Harlan II • Holmes • Hunt • Iredell • H. Jackson • R. Jackson • T. Johnson • W. Johnson, Jr. • J. Lamar • L. Lamar • Livingston • Lurton • Marshall • Matthews • McKenna • McKinley • McLean • McReynolds • Miller • Minton • Moody • Moore • Murphy • Nelson • Paterson • Peckham • Pitney • Powell • Reed • Roberts • W. Rutledge • Sanford • Scalia • Shiras • Stevens • Stewart • Story • Strong • Sutherland • Swayne • Thompson • Todd • Trimble • Van Devanter • Washington • Wayne • B. White • Whittaker • Wilson • Woodbury • Woods