The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari to just five cases so far this term, nine fewer than the 2023 term and eight fewer than the 2022 term up to this point, reported Newsweek.
"Certiorari" is a legal term that refers to the process by which a party petitions the Supreme Court to review a lower court's decision. The 2024 term started on Oct. 7.
The cases granted certiorari include two involving the Environmental Protection Agency as a defendant and another, Esteras v. United States, in which the court will address a circuit split over what factors judges can consider when sentencing a person for violating conditions of supervised release.
In the first EPA cases, the court agreed to consider whether the U.S. agency could steer certain lawsuits challenging agency actions designed to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions away from regional appeals courts favored by opponents of its actions and to a court in Washington that regularly hears regulatory disputes.
The justices also agreed to consider whether a New Orleans-based federal appeals court should have likewise sent to Washington a lawsuit by small refiners challenging the EPA's denial of waivers that would exempt them from national biofuel mandates before deeming the agency's action unlawful.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.