Do I have to be a member of the bar of US Supreme Court in order to file a response to petition for writ of ceriorari? I have read Rules of Supreme Court of United States and am unclear on this. Rule 9 would make this appear so.

It is my undrstanding that only members of the bar of the court may appear as counsel before it. You should be able to verify this with the clerk very easily.

I think the answer is yes, you must be a member of the SC bar. Will cost you $100 and filling out a form, that includes sponsorship by another member of the SC bar. All forms are on the SC website.

John Bradley
District Attorney
Williamson County, Texas

Here is the link to the SC website for forms: click here.

John Bradley
District Attorney
Williamson County, Texas

The way I understand it is that the certificate of service must be signed by a member of the US S CT bar. I just went through this myself and contacted people I worked with in the AG's office and that is what they told me. Many Asst AG's are not admitted before their first brief is due so they have to get someone who is already admitted to sign it. It takes two sponsors and one person to make a motion to admit. Unless you really need to respond to the writ I was advised that the best thing to do is sign a waiver and then if they want briefing they will ask for it. I ended up having another person in the office sign my waiver and the writ was denied in about 6 weeks. If you do not sign a waiver even if you don't want to respond it will take longer through the process. I mailed my application on Feb 11 and got my letter of admission on Feb 28. The clerk told me that it is about 2 weeks from date they received application to get admitted. Note that it took almost 7 days even with priority mail to get there. If you need to rush it better use express mail.