← Legal Glossary
Certiorari before judgment
Definition
A rare Supreme Court procedure in which the Court accepts a case directly from a lower court (bypassing normal appellate process) before the lower court has completed its review. The petition must concern a question of exceptional importance. The Court granted Trump's certiorari petition before judgment in December 2025.
Examples
- •Trump's petition granted in December 2025, allowing the case to proceed directly to Supreme Court argument before the First Circuit completed its decision