united-states us-supreme-court
Can the U. S. Supreme Court take as much time as it wants until it renders a decision?
<p>I am wondering whether there is any formal (I could not find one) or informal (e. g. custom) limit on the time that the U. S. Supreme Court can take from the date when a case enters the docket (alternatively: from the time certiorari is granted) to the date when it renders a decision. Could a case theoretically remain on the docket for years before it is decided?</p>

<p>Do the terms have any significance for this question - i. e. would it be strange if the court grants certiorari this term but only decides the case on its merits next term?</p>

<p>There have been instances where the US Supreme Court has held over cases to the next term, and instances where they ordered a case re-argued in the next term. <em>Brown vs Board of Education</em> was  a particularly well known case that was reargued. I believe that such occasions are rare, and that the court makes a significant effort to decide each case in the same term where certiorari is granted.</p>
<p>Once exception is when the Court has a vacancy and is waiting fora new Justice to be confirmed, and the Justices in office are tied. Then cases with 4-4 splits are often held and re-argued.</p>
<p>More often, the Justices decide, after granting <em>certiorari</em>, that this was a mistake, and dismiss the case altogether. The phrase used is that the writ is &quot;dismissed as improvidently granted&quot; or &quot;DIGed&quot;. This has the same ultimate effect as if certiorari  had never been granted -- the lower court decision is left standing, and no Supreme Court precedent is created. This is still fairly rare.</p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge there is no <strong>rule</strong> requiring decision within any specific time, but I have never heard of a case held over for more than one term.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Can the U. S. Supreme Court take as much time as it wants until it
renders a decision?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>It is customary for the U.S. Supreme Court to try to resolve all of the case it hears in a term in the same term, but no court rule, statute, or constitutional provision compels it to do so, and sometimes it does not.</p>
<p>Often the U.S. Supreme Court will seek to rule quickly when failing to do so would render its decision moot (in furtherance of its capacity to legally influence an outcome). But other times it will deliberate delay deciding a pending case that is about to become moot which is called decision making via the &quot;shadow docket.&quot;</p>
<p>Despite the inability of anyone to sanction the U.S. Supreme Court for delays, it is actually considerably more prompt than many lower courts (which also have more complicated tasks as more issues are pending before them in the same case simultaneously).</p>
<p>For example, the oldest case decided by the Colorado Court of Appeals <a href="https://www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/Court_of_Appeals/Case_Announcements/Index.cfm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">on the completely ordinary day of August 12, 2021</a> was filed as an appeal in 2017, about four years earlier.</p>
<p>I have seen trial court motions in both the state and federal courts languish for one to two years before being ruled upon.</p>
