American Indians look to high court

[jgalecpa]

This case probably will never get heard.

First, what they are doing is appealing to the USSCT for a 'writ of certiorari'.

The Supreme Ct gets THOUSANDS of these a year, from nearly everyone who lost at the Appellate level.

The supreme court hears maybe 20 - 50 a year, and are hearing fewer and fewer cases every year.

They generally only take cases where (a) there have been similar cases resulting in different outcomes among different courts of appeals (e.g the 4th circuit says something is ok but the 9th says it's fine), or (b) he matter is of great national import.

This is certainly not the former and seems not to be the latter. At its heart it is a trademark case.

If it does hear the appeal, it is only on the question of did the appeals court make a mistake in handling the appeal?

It will not rehear the case all over ('de novo').

I bet you will hear that 'cert was denied' meaning they won't even hear the case.

That has the effect of letting the appeals ct decision stand, and in effect even strengthening the decision.

J-dawg