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| Certified Questions in State and Federal Courts |
Certified Questions in State and Federal Courts
By law, the highest state court (usually called the supreme court) has authority to answer certified questions of law if the certified question could determine the outcome of a pending case and there is no controlling legal precedent in the state. A federal court of appeals can certify to the United States Supreme Court a question of law in a pending case. However, certification of a question of law to the Supreme Court is rare.
Submission of Certified Question
In state court, a certified question can be submitted by the court in which the case is pending or by a party in the case. The certified question must include the specific question of law to be answered and a statement of all relevant facts. Only the federal court of appeals, and not a litigant, can file a certified question in the Supreme Court.
Dismissal of Certified Question
The court will dismiss a certified question for lack of prosecution or if the certificate fails to certify the facts properly. The applicant who filed the certified question can also make a motion to dismiss the certified question. If the motion is granted, the certified question will be dismissed.
Example of Case Involving Certified Question
In 2004, a federal court of appeals certified two questions concerning Florida law to the Supreme Court of Florida. The federal court of appeals considered the questions to be determinative of a case pending in that court and there appeared to be no controlling precedent on the issues.
One question concerned whether a Boca Raton, Florida ordinance, which prohibited vertical grave markers or monuments on cemetery plots, violated the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act (Act). Cemetery plot owners had placed vertical decorations on their cemetery plots in observance of sincerely held religious beliefs. The city sent notices to the plot owners that the decorations had to be removed or the city would remove them. Some of the plot owners filed suit.
In response to the certified question, the Supreme Court of Florida held that the city's regulation did not substantially burden the plot owners' free exercise of religion. However, part of the ordinance violated the Free Speech Clauses of both the federal and Florida Constitutions as applied to the prohibition on vertical grave decorations. The function of the Supreme Court of Florida was to answer the questions certified to it; it is then the function of the certifying court, in this case the federal court of appeals, to apply the answers to the facts as the court finds them.
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