Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in Illinois
Court Filing
I'm a student studying Media Law and trying to find out where ''Reno v.ACLU' was first filed. But I can't determine if it was filed at a District court in PA. or an Appellate court since it ended up going to the US Supreme court. Can a case from a District court go directly to the Supreme court without going through an Appellate court?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Court Filing
ACLU v. Reno was filed in the Eastern District of PA. It was appealed to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court took the case (known as granting certiorari or "cert" for short) under a new name -- ACLU v. Ashcroft -- and eventually remanded the case back to the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court granted cert a second time, eventually remanding the case back to the district court.
As for your other questions, virtually all cases must be filed in district court (I believe there are a few types of cases that can be filed in the Supreme Court). The Supreme Court can grant cert directly from the district court, thus bypassing the appellate court, but that is rare.
Hope that helps.
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