Can the US Supreme Court send you to jail?

Answer 1

No, certainly not directly. The US Supreme Court does not try civil or criminal cases and doesn't make decisions about a defendant's guilt or innocence; that's the job of the judge and jury in the trial court. A criminal defendant would have to be convicted and have exhausted all other appeals before he or she could petition the Court to review the case. In other words, the person would already be convicted and sentenced,probably several years earlier.

If the US Supreme Court agreed to review the case, their decision about the constitutional issues raised could potentially result in release from jail, a new trial, or a change in sentencing, etc. If, for some unknown, hypothetical reason, the courts allowed the convicted person to remain or go free pending the slim possibility of a successful Supreme Court appeal, and the Supreme Court upheld the conviction, then the Court may be considered indirectly responsible for sending the person to jail.

While this may seem theoretically possible, it never happens in real life.