Do intermediate appellate courts have to accept every case that comes to them? Do state supreme courts have to accept every case that comes to them?
The conventional answers to these questions are “yes” in the instance of intermediate appellate courts and “no” in the instance of state supreme courts. Intermediate appellate courts are believed to handle virtually only appeals and to have mandatory jurisdiction over them. Appellants are believed to have a right to at least one appeal in both civil and criminal cases. Those cases are thought to go directly to an intermediate appellate court.State supreme courts are commonly considered to have almost entirely discretionary jurisdiction. They are thought to be able to take the cases they deem appropriate from among the many challenges of decisions made previously by intermediate appellate courts. State supreme courts without an intermediate appellate court are thought to have almost entirely mandatory jurisdiction, just like intermediate appellate courts. However, there are clear and complete counterexamples to these images. The supreme courts in New Hampshire and West Virginia which la
