More Questions Presented

As part of “Term Tracker” feature, we have added more cert. petitions to our “complete” list of Questions Presented; the petitions can be downloaded via this link.

Incidentally, when we introduced this feature (post here), several commenters attempted to correct me when I noted that pro se petitions would not be included in our database. One commenter said: “You wrote that pro se petitions won’t be included, but I think you mean that IFP petitions [In Forma Pauperis] won’t be included. Usually they are one and the same, but not all IFP petitions are pro se, and not all pro se petitions are IFP. The Court only distinguishes between IFP and paid petitions, not pro se and counsel-assisted.”

In response, let me clarify my previous statement. The commenter is correct to point out that the Court itself only distinguishes between IFP and paid petitions – according to the Court’s rules, this term’s paid petitions are docketed 06-1 to 06-4999 and IFP petitions will be docketed above 06-5000.

For the purposes of this feature, though, we are making a further distinction, since we won’t be posting the set of pro se paid petitions. In other words, we will omit all IFP petitions for this feature, but we will also be omitting a few petitions in the paid category that do not have a lawyer as counsel of record. The reason for this is simple: these petitions have a vanishingly small change of being granted.