Courts of appeal grow in influence
Knight Ridder Newspapers (via Yahoo News):
... a look at the rising importance of the appeals courts shows how much is at stake for both sides in the confirmation battles for such nominees as Priscilla Owen, William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown. Appeals courts are often the last stop for the vast majority of cases involving everything from abortion and affirmative action to election law and environmental regulations.The Supreme Court under Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist has been intervening in only about 80 cases each year, down from about 150 a year two decades ago, leaving tens of thousands to be decided by appeals courts that are increasingly shaping the nation's laws.
"The appeals courts are critical decision-making bodies on a range of issues," said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "As the Supreme Court takes fewer and fewer cases, the appeals courts are more frequently having final say. Both sides know this, so it forms the backdrop for the entire fight."
The United States has thirteen federal courts of appeal; in 10 of them, Republican-appointed judges are in the majority.
As the article implies, if you're ever a party to federal litigation, the odds are overwhelming that your case will go no higher than your regional court of appeals. What's more, federal appellate courts occasionally depart from U.S. Supreme Court precedent -- and the Supreme Court doesn't always intervene to correct them.
Learn more about the federal courts of appeal; download a pdf map of the circuits.