<Ul> <Li> By petition for a writ of certiorari , filed by a party to a case that has been decided by one of the United States courts of appeals or by the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces . </Li> <Li> By petition for writ of certiorari with respect to a decision of one of the territorial or state courts , after all state appeals have been exhausted , where an issue of federal constitutional or statutory law is in question . The writ is usually issued to a state supreme court ( including high courts of the District of Columbia , Puerto Rico , the U.S. Virgin Islands , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , and American Samoa ) , but is occasionally issued to a state 's intermediate appellate court for cases where the state supreme court denied certiorari or review and thereby refused to hear the appeal . </Li> <Li> By petition for certiorari before judgment , which permits the Court to expedite a case pending before a United States court of appeals by accepting the case for review before the appellate court has decided it . However , Supreme Court Rule 11 provides that a case may be taken by the Court before judgment in a lower court `` only upon a showing that the case is of such imperative public importance as to justify deviation from normal appellate practice and to require immediate determination in this Court . '' </Li> <Li> By appeal from certain decisions of United States district courts in certain cases involving redistricting of congressional or state legislative districts , or when specifically authorized in a particular statute . </Li> <Li> By a certified question or proposition of law from one of the United States Courts of Appeals , meaning that the Court of Appeals requests the Supreme Court to instruct it on how to decide the case . This procedure was once common but is now rarely invoked ; the last certificate accepted for review was in 1981 . </Li> <Li> By petition for an `` extraordinary writ '' such as mandamus , prohibition , or habeas corpus . These writs are rarely granted by the Supreme Court though they are more frequently granted by lower courts . </Li> </Ul>
a request to the supreme court that it review a case that was already decided is made via a ( n )
writ of certiorari