https://www.cato.org/blog/may-15th-supreme-court-will-finall...
Sample:
Jessop v. City of Fresno. In this case, the Ninth Circuit granted immunity to police officers who stole over $225,000 in cash and rare coins in the course of executing a search warrant. The court noted that while “the theft [of] personal property by police officers sworn to uphold the law” may be “morally wrong,” the officers could not be sued for the theft because the Ninth Circuit had never issued a decision specifically involving the question of “whether the theft of property covered by the terms of a search warrant, and seized pursuant to that warrant, violates the Fourth Amendment.”
Edit: I will just reply to all of the comments downthread at once because they all seem to urge the same thing. SCOTUS has no incentive to act when the legislative branch is doing something that could easily overturn or not align with their decision, which would render their decision moot. A law that Congress passes overrules any and all SCOTUS precedent on the issue because Congress "legislates against the backdrop of the common law." Further, Congress has the ability to move much faster than SCOTUS: a bill could be passed on less than a month in Congress while it will take at least a year for SCOTUS to reach a decision.
No, because the current state of the law still matters. In fact, it might matter even more if there are legislative proposals pending.
That they have to decide cases to create said precedent is a side issue.
What this means is that if the law is likely to be changed, then there is little incentive to set a precedent that will have effect on a limited number of pending cases. Whereas if the law is not likely to be changed, the precedent set will affect many future cases and has a greater impact.
Therefore the Supreme Court is properly less interested in cases if it looks like legislation will be passed to address the issue.
Not really. The primary job of the judiciary, SCOTUS included, is to resolve "cases and controversies." This goes to the heart of judicial restraint, as proscribed in the Constitution, and is commonly referenced in the Court's opinions.
Functionally, SCOTUS ends up writing precedent. But the precedent must flow from the case. Cases mustn't be decided for the purpose of creating precedent.
You don't have to take my word for it. The Supreme Court gets about 7000 petitions per year and only listens to 100-120 of them. Per https://www.ushistory.org/gov/9c.asp the criteria that they choose by is:
Generally, the Court considers only cases that have far-reaching implications beyond the two parties involved in the dispute. For example, a case in which a student sues an assistant principal for searching a locker may shape the privacy rights of all students in public schools. The court also tends to hear cases in which two lower courts have reached conflicting decisions. And it tends to look closely at lower court decisions that contradict earlier Supreme Court decisions.
In other words it chooses cases based on the importance of the precedent that is likely to be set or reinforced. The importance of the case to the people involved is less important than that.