Sua sponte

Notable cases

• Carlisle v. United States 517 U.S. 416 – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a district court could not move sua sponte to grant a judgment of acquittal to remedy the late filing of the equivalent motion.
• Trest v. Cain 522 U.S. 87, 94 F.3d 1005 – The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit moved sua sponte to reject a habeas corpus claim because of procedural default, citing an obligation to do so. The Supreme Court ruled that this was not obligatory, but declined to rule whether it was permitted.
• Since 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has frequently taken up suo motu cases against government authorities there. This includes cases involving violence in the country, government corruption, imposing price ceilings on various commodities, and many other cases. The extent to which the court should exercise this authority is a matter of political debate.
• A special reference as to the initiation of Inquisitorial proceedings was also made by the Supreme Court of India, to facilitate this epistolary proceedings, a public interest litigation cell has been opened in the Supreme Court to which letters addressed to the Court or individual judges are forwarded which are placed before the Chief Justice after scrutiny by the staff attached to the cell. The court is not bound by the Civil Procedure Code and the Evidence Act to fulfill the object and purpose of Article 32, and can devise inquisitorial or other procedures.

  Other uses

• The 75th Ranger Regiment uses Sua Sponte as their regimental motto, referring to the Rangers' ability to accomplish tasks with little to no prompting and to recognize that a Ranger volunteers three times: for the U.S. Army, Airborne School, and service in the 75th Ranger Regiment.