Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the Supreme Court mandatory appellate jurisdiction from the highest court of a state where that court had upheld a state statute against a claim that it contravened the U.S. Constitution, held a federal law to be invalid, or decided against a right claimed under the Constitution or federal law. In 1914, Congress expanded the parameters of such jurisdiction by allowing the Court to issue writs of certiorari in cases in which the state court had reached the opposite result by holding a state statute to be unconstitutional, upholding the validity of a federal law, or deciding in favor of a right claimed under federal law.

See also:

Supreme Court of the United States: Jurisdiction (chart)