Although Congress was responsible for picking the U.S. Supreme Court docket in the past, the Supreme Court justices have great autonomy to pick the cases they want to hear. Annually, almost 99% of all cases appealed to the Supreme Court are denied. What kinds of factors do you think go into which cases are heard? Cases are denied without an explanation—do you think it is a good idea for the Supreme Court to set its own docket with no accountability for how or why they hear a case? How would responding to every case change the work of the Supreme Court? Explain.

The American constitution, Article III, Section I states that, "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office". The original jurisdiction is when the supreme court is the first and only court to hear a case. The appellate jurisdiction is that the supreme court has the power to review the decisions of lower courts.
Some of the factors that the cases heard at the supreme court vary and the court uses the rule of four to decide if they will take a case. When four of the nine judges decide that the case is of high value, they will issue a certiorari writ. This is an order to the lower courts to infer them to send their records of cases for review. The factors that the court uses to know which cases to hear are; the court will only hear cases which involve a conflict of war; secondly, it will hear cases that speak to the interests of justice, thirdly the court hears cases when lower courts disregard past supreme court decisions, and lastly, the court will hear cases that are highly unusual such as the case of Bush v Gore which concerned the extremely close elections of 2000
The supreme court should set-up an accountability docket to enable aggrieved parties better understand why their cases were dismissed. this will create an environment of trust, confidence, and fulfillment on the complainants' part and ensuring accountability in the supreme court.
Responding to every case at the supreme court will definitely increase the workload because many cases usually reach the supreme court, but they are quashed in that they do not meet the minimum requirements to be heard. The judges will have to set-up a system on how they will hear the cases as they come.
Also, responding to every case would change the work of Supreme Court. This is because, it has to explore its supervisory function within the judicial system as determining all these petitions mean that all appellate decisions have to be decided by Supreme Court. As a result, this increases the workload thus Court's case-selection decisions impact its work, its role, and its image. Finalizing, the fact that the court has limited resources makes it difficult to determine all petitions for certiorari that come before the court.