Appeals filed by indigent and low-income litigants at the U.S. Supreme Court have fallen sharply in recent years and are now at their lowest level of the 21st century, according to reporting by the ABA Journal.
During the Court’s most recent term, approximately 2,500 appeals were filed by indigent petitioners—less than half the number filed just six years ago, and roughly one-third of the number filed two decades ago, Supreme Court data show.
Observers describe the trend as dramatic and troubling. A significant pool of cases that once routinely reached the Court from poor and incarcerated litigants appears to be drying up, and experts are unsure why. Importantly, the drop in filings from indigent petitioners far outpaces the decline among paying litigants.
The findings raise serious questions about access to the Court, and about whether structural, procedural, or resource-based barriers are increasingly preventing indigent litigants from seeking Supreme Court review.
For the criminal defense community, the trend underscores broader concerns about unequal access to appellate review at the highest level, particularly for people whose liberty - or lives - are at stake.
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