Supreme Court Returns Today With ‘Long Conference’ – Update for September 29, 2025

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‘LONG CONFERENCE’ SET FOR TODAY

The Supreme Court holds its annual “long conference” today (Monday, September 29th), a closed meeting at which the justices will consider the roughly 2,000 petitions for review that have built up since their last conference before their summer recess held last June.

Gregory Garre, who served as the US solicitor general 20 years ago, described it as the place “where petitions go to die.” Normally, a petition for cert has about a 1.1% chance of being granted review. “Long conference” petitions have about half of that.

So far, the court’s docket is only about half-full, leaving plenty of room for a flurry of new grants of certiorari for litigants. The court typically agrees to hear more cases from this conference than any other during the term. Still, Supreme Court petitioners prefer to avoid having their cases scheduled for the long conference due to the slightly worse odds of getting a cert grant than other times of the year.

The long conference is the unofficial start to the court’s new term, which by law officially begins on the first Monday in October. For the past two terms, the court has announced new grants on the Friday following the conference, before publishing its usual “orders list” consisting of cert denials (rejected cases) the following Monday.

A notable case to be considered tomorrow is that of Ghislaine Maxwell. She claims that a 20-year-old immunity agreement reached between the government of Maxwell’s associate Jeffrey Epstein covered her as well. The case, if heard, could be the first significant plea agreement case to come from the Supreme Court in over 60 years.

SCOTUSBlog, What is the Long Conference? (August 11, 2025)

National Law Journal, 12 Cases to Watch From Supreme Court’s ‘Long Conference’ (August 18, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root