Supreme Court of North Carolina

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Supreme Court of North Carolina
Sitting Justices
Sarah Parker
Mark Martin
Robert Edmunds Jr
Edward Thomas Brady
Paul Martin Newby
Patricia Timmons-Goodson
Robin Hudson
2008 challengers
Suzanne Reynolds
Former justices
North Carolina on Judgepedia

The Supreme Court of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court. The court consists of six associate justices and one chief justice, although the number of justices has varied from time to time. The primary function of the Supreme Court is to decide questions of law that have arisen in the lower courts and before state administrative agencies, including Court of Appeals cases that are reviewed upon petition.[1]

Contents

Overview

The Supreme Court is housed in the Law and Justice Building, located across from the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina. The building was built in 1940 and underwent major renovations in 2005-2007.[2]

The primary function of the Supreme Court is to decide questions of law that have arisen in the lower courts and before state administrative agencies. The justices spend most of their time outside the courtroom reading written case records, studying briefs prepared by lawyers, researching applicable law, and writing opinions exposing the reasoning upon which the Court's determinations are based. The concurrence of four justices generally is required for a decision; each of the seven justices participates in every case except in unusual situations in which a justice may feel compelled to recuse, or withdraw, from sitting.[3]

In addition to cases awaiting decision, the justices consider numerous petitions in which a party seeks to bring a case before the Court for adjudication. Although most such requests are denied, the justices read hundreds of records and briefs and spend many hours in conference deliberating their merits. Each justice writes several hundred printed pages of opinions each year. These opinions are published in the North Carolina Reports and in several unofficial publications, and may be found in major law libraries throughout the world.


History

The first North Carolina appellate court, created in 1799, was called the Court of Conference and consisted of several Superior Court (trial) judges sitting en banc twice each year to review appeals from their own courts. By an 1805 statute the Court of Conference was renamed the "Supreme Court," although its composition remained the same: a quorum of Superior Court judges sitting en banc to review their own decisions. In 1810 the Court became a tribunal of public record; the judges were ordered to reduce their opinions to writing and deliver them viva voce in open court, for which they were paid an additional £50 per year. They also were authorized to elect from their number a chief justice; John Louis Taylor, a twelve-year veteran of the N.C. Superior Court bench, was chosen for this position. By the same act the governor was directed to procure a seal and motto for the Court, and any party in an action adjudicated in the Superior Court was given the right of appeal. This court was called the Supreme Court from 1805 to 1818.[4]

From 1818 to 1868

From the time the North Carolina General Assembly created the Court as a distinct body in 1818 to 1868, the members of the Court were chosen by the General Assembly and served for life, or "during good behavior." The legislature appointed John Louis Taylor, Leonard Henderson, and John Hall as the first Supreme Court judges. The three judges were allowed to select their own Chief Justice, and they chose Taylor. The Court first met on January 1, 1819. The Court began holding two sittings, or "terms," a year, the first beginning on the second Monday in June and the second on the last Monday in December. This schedule endured until the Constitution of 1868 prescribed the first Mondays in January and July for the sittings. Vacancies on the Court were filled temporarily by the Governor, with the assistance and advice of the Council of State, until the end of the next session of the state General Assembly.[5]

Throughout the 1820s regular attacks were leveled at the Supreme Court by legislators who believed that the chief justice and the two judges should be elected at large, by the people. The thin reed of legislative support for the Court nearly snapped in 1832, when a bill was introduced to reduce the salaries of the judges from $2,500 to $2,000. That this measure and others sponsored by populist politicians throughout the 1820s and 1830s (including a proposed 1835 constitutional amendment dissolving the Court outright) were defeated was probably due to the personal prestige of the judges themselves. The election of former Superior Court Judge and State Bank President Thomas Ruffin to the bench in 1829 effectively ensured the Court's survival. Ranked by Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound as one of the ten greatest jurists in American history, Ruffin singlehandedly transformed the common law of North Carolina into an instrument of economic change. His writings on the subject of eminent domain--the right of the state to seize private property for the public good--paved the way for the expansion of railroads into North Carolina, enabling the "Rip Van Winkle State" to embrace the industrial revolution. Ruffin's opinions were cited as persuasive authority by appellate tribunals throughout the United States. The influence his decisions exercised upon the nascent jurisprudence of the states then known as the Southwest (Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi), which were settled by emigrating North Carolinians in large numbers, made Ruffin a celebrated figure at home. Public veneration of the "stern prophet," as Ruffin was called, preserved his Court from destruction.[6]

After 1868

Four major reforms befell the Court as a result of North Carolina's adoption of a new constitution in 1868. First, in an extensive revision of the judicial article, the Court became a "constitutional" tribunal that owed its existence to the fundamental law of the State rather than to a legislative enactment. Second, the number of judges was increased from three to five, with the chief justice retaining his title and his brethren receiving the appellation "associate justices." Third, the selection of Supreme Court judges was removed from the General Assembly and entrusted to popular sovereignty; the justices, including the chief justice, were to be elected by the people for eight-year terms. In the event of a vacancy, the governor was to appoint a locum tenens to sit until after the next general election for members of the General Assembly. There are no term limits, and today, these races are non-partisan. Finally, in a progressive move, the new judicial article merged the formerly separate law and equity jurisdictions of the Court into a single "form of action for the enforcement or protection of private rights or the redress of private wrongs."[7]

Recent History

At the suggestion of Chief Justice James Exum Jr and others, the General Assembly in 1987 established a Judicial Selection Study Commission to review North Carolina's method of judicial selection and retention. The Commission recommended that Supreme Court justices be appointed, rather than elected, and proposed a constitutional amendment creating an appointive system. An amended version of this plan has passed the Senate repeatedly in recent years but has failed to garner a three-fifths vote in the House of Representatives. Efforts to eliminate the practice of electing appellate judges will probably continue in forthcoming legislative sessions.[8]

Current Justices

The Court's current (January 2007) members are:

Former Justices

Justices are listed roughly in reverse chronological order. Note that dates in parentheses are for service as Chief Justice only. Many Chief Justices have also served as associate justices.

21st Century

20th Century

19th Century Chief Justices

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://www.nccourts.org/Courts/Default.asp
  2. ↑ http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/573249.html
  3. ↑ http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/copyright/sc/facts.html
  4. ↑ http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/copyright/sc/facts.html
  5. ↑ http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/copyright/sc/facts.html
  6. ↑ http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/copyright/sc/facts.html
  7. ↑ http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/copyright/sc/facts.html
  8. ↑ http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/copyright/sc/facts.html

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