Final answer:
Cases heard by the courts of appeals come from lower courts after a decision has been made, with the two primary sources being the federal district courts and state supreme courts. These cases reach the U.S. Supreme Court primarily through writs of certiorari, but only a few are selected for review out of thousands of petitions each year.
Step-by-step explanation:
The courts of appeals, or appellate courts, have the authority to review cases that have already been decided by lower courts. This appellate jurisdiction means they hear cases on appeal after a lower court has rendered a decision. There are two main pathways through which cases reach the U.S. Supreme Court: they come either from the federal circuit courts, which are the U.S. courts of appeals, or from state supreme courts when the case involves a federal question.
Initially, cases typically start in the district courts, which have original jurisdiction. From there, they may be appealed to the circuit courts of appeals. These courts are organized into 12 regional circuits plus a 13th, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has nationwide jurisdiction over specialized areas like international trade and patent rights.
Cases from specialized federal trial courts, such as the Court of International Trade and Court of Federal Claims, can also be appealed to the Supreme Court, although this happens infrequently. In most situations, the Supreme Court selects cases based on a writ of certiorari, which orders a lower court to send its records to the Supreme Court for review. While thousands of such petitions are presented annually, the Supreme Court agrees to hear less than one hundred.