the most common route for a case to follow in order to be heard by the supreme court is through
Supreme court The official names of state supreme courts vary, as do the titles of its members, which can cause confusion between jurisdictions because one state may use a name for its highest court that another uses for a lower court. In New York, Maryland, and the District of Columbia the highest court is called the Court of Appeals, a name used by many states for their intermediate appellate courts. Further, trial courts of general jurisdiction in New York are called the Supreme Court, and the intermediate appellate court is called the Supreme Court, Appellate Division. In West Virginia, the highest court of the state is the Supreme Court of Appeals. In Maine and Massachusetts the highest court is styled the "Supreme Judicial Court"; the last is the oldest appellate court of continuous operation in the Western Hemisphere. Even within the same jurisdiction, the titles for judicial officeholders can cause confusion. In Texas the members of the Supreme Court and of the 14 intermediate courts of appeals are Justices, while the members of the Court of Criminal Appeals carry the title Judge, which is also used generically. Judges at the lowest trial-court level are called Justices of the Peace or JPs.