hear a case. First, a growing number of cases submitted to the United States Supreme Court are paupers' cases. Since 1984, the court has denied many pauper petitions on the grounds that the litigants were not bonafide paupers. Since 1989, the court has also denied pauper petitions from litigants with large numbers of prior petitions, and since 1991, has denied pauper petitions considered to be frivolous or malicious.
The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court prepares a list of case petitions, on which decisions to hear will be made in a conference of the justices. Those petitions not included on the Chief Justice's list are automatically denied hearing, unless another justice specifically asks that a case be added to the list.
The conference on the cases is attended only by the justices. None of the clerks attend. At the conference, either the Chief Justice or the justice who had a case added to the list begins the discussion of the petition. Other justices then speak in order of seniority from senior to junior. Th
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