Supreme Court of Puerto Rico

	Supreme Court of Puerto Rico
Established in	1952
Jurisdiction	Puerto Rico, United States
Location	San Juan, Puerto Rico
Composition method	Gubernatorial selection with Senatorial advice and consent
Authorized by	Constitution of Puerto Rico
Judge term length	Justices serve until they reach 70 years of age
Number of positions	7
Website	Supreme Court of Puerto Rico
Chief Justice
Currently	Federico Hernández Denton
Since	August 9, 2004

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Coordinates: 18°27′47″N 66°5′18″W / 18.46306°N 66.08833°W / 18.46306; -66.08833

The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico is the highest court of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, having the ultimate judicial authority within Puerto Rico to interpret and decide questions of local commonwealth law. As the highest body of the judicial branch of the Puerto Rican government, it is analogous to one of the state supreme courts of the U.S. states. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico holds its sessions in the city of San Juan.

[edit] Structure and powers

The Supreme Court Building is at the entrance of the city of San Juan.

The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico was established by the Foraker Act in 1900 and maintained in the 1952 Constitution of Puerto Rico. It is the only appellate court required by the Constitution. All other courts are created by the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico. However, since Puerto Rico is under United States sovereignty, there is also a Federal District Court for the island.

The justices (currently seven) are appointed by the Governor of Puerto Rico and confirmed by majority vote by the Senate. One of these seven justices serves as Chief Justice; the remaining members are designated Associate Justices. Unlike the Supreme Court of the United States, the justices of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court do not serve for life, as the Puerto Rico Constitution requires that justices are obliged to retire upon reaching age 70.

Although the Supreme Court was originally composed of five justices, the number was increased to seven during the 1960s. In the early 1970s, the number of justices was raised to nine, but it was reduced back to seven in 1976.

The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico is defined by the Constitution and the laws of Puerto Rico. In general, the jurisdictional structure parallels that of the state Supreme Courts in the continental United States. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico has concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts to interpret federal laws, unless the Supremacy Clause requires otherwise. Judgments that stand on federal law grounds may be reviewed by the United States Supreme Court, unless an adequate and independent ground for the decision based in Puerto Rico commonwealth law is also present. The Court has the power of judicial review and its decision are considered binding precedent within the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico also regulates the practice of law in Puerto Rico.

The term of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court begins on the first Monday of October and ends on the last week of June of the following year. However, during the recess months of July through September, an alternating panel of three justices are allowed to hear cases and their decisions are considered binding precedent. However, in order for any law passed by the Legislative Assembly to be declared unconstitutional, it requieres the votes of a majority of the total membership of the Court, therefore, a three-justice panel may not hear constitutional challenges to laws passed by the Legislature.

The justices decide whether or not to hear oral arguments for the case. If the case is controversial or carries high public interest, an oral argument may be scheduled, although oral arguments have been rare under Chief Justice Hernández Denton. When oral argument occurs, each side has twenty-five minutes to state its respective claims and five minutes for rebuttal. After the sides have ended their argument, each justice has ten minutes (in order of seniority) to ask questions to each side. Justices may decide to yield the balance of their time to one of their colleagues.

[edit] Appointments

Appointments to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico have traditionally been a politicized and often controversial process. The Governor of Puerto Rico usually appoints someone who is affiliated with his own political party.^{[citation needed]} For example, during his sixteen years as Governor, Luis Muñoz Marín only appointed one statehooder, Rafael Hernández Matos to the court, despite the fact that statehooders represented the largest political minority in Puerto Rico. For over half a century, the Court has been dominated by justices affiliated with the Popular Democratic Party, until February 2009, when Governor Luis Fortuño filled three vacancies with judges affiliated with the statehood movement. Added to one statehooder who was already on the Court, the statehooders became a majority in the Court.^{[citation needed]} Four women have been appointed justices since 1952; one of them, Miriam Naveira, was Chief Justice for a period of one year. Only one black, Justice Erick Kolthoff, has served in the Court. He is also the Court's only protestant.

The current Chief Justice is Federico Hernández Denton, who was appointed in 2004 by Governor Sila Calderón. Previously, he served as an Associate Justice from 1985 to 2004. In this capacity, Chief Justice Hernández has sworn in Governors Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and Luis Fortuño. He is also the administrator of the Judicial Branch of Puerto Rico.

With the arrival of Associate Justice Pabón, the three female justices constitute the largest number of women in history to serve on the Court simultaneously.

Of the six current Associate Justices, four have served on the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals. Justice Anabelle Rodríguez has served as Solicitor General and Attorney General of Puerto Rico and Justice Kolthoff served as a Superior Court Judge.

[edit] Current Composition of the Court

Justice	Age	Appointed by	Year Appointed	Prior Positions
Federico Hernández Denton (Chief Justice)	65	Sila Calderón	2004	Secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Dean of the Interamerican University Law School, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1985-2004) appointed by Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón
Efraín Rivera Pérez	58	Pedro Rosselló González	2000	Legal Advisor to the Governor of Puerto Rico, Deputy Attorney General of Puerto Rico, Superior Court Judge, Judge at the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals
Liana Fiol Matta	62	Sila Calderón	2004	Judge at the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals (1992-2004)
Anabelle Rodríguez	55	Sila Calderón	2004	Solicitor General of Puerto Rico, Attorney General of Puerto Rico (2001-2004)
Rafael Martínez Torres	50	Luis Fortuño	2009	Judge at the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals (1995-2009)
Mildred Pabón Charneco	51	Luis Fortuño	2009	Judge at the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals (2000-2009)
Erick Kolthoff Caraballo	47	Luis Fortuño	2009	Judge at the Superior Courts of Puerto Rico (2007-2009), Director of the Nominations Investigation Unit at the Senate of Puerto Rico (2005-2007)

[edit] Conflicts with the Federal Court

From 1915 to 1961, decisions of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court could be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. In earlier years, the First Circuit frequently reversed the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, sometimes attempting to impose its own interpretations of Puerto Rico's civil law legal norms despite the Boston-based court's unfamiliarity with Puerto Rico jurisprudence, until a series of opinions by United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes instructed that the Puerto Rico Supreme Court's interpretations were not to be overturned by the federal appeals court unless they were "manifestly wrong." With the standard of review so limited, and especially after Puerto Rico attained Commonwealth status under the 1952 Constitution, this route for appeals was deemed anachronistic and was repealed in 1961. Today, decisions of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court are as final as those of any state supreme court and are reviewable by the Supreme Court of the United States only pursuant to a writ of certiorari when an important question of federal law is involved.

Conflicts between the Puerto Rico courts and the federal court do arise from time to time. According to the Constitution of Puerto Rico of 1952, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is only within laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. However, on several occasions the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico has taken jurisdiction on cases having to do with Puerto Rican law. A highly controversial instance occurred in November 2004 when the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico declared that all ballots should be counted during the Puerto Rico General Election of 2004. The New Progressive Party brought the matter to the Federal Court, claiming that some of the ballots should be nullified. Federal Judge Daniel Dominguez then took jurisdiction of the case, in a ruling that would effectively have nullified the decision of the Supreme Court. However, on December 15, 2004, the First Circuit Court reversed Judge Dominguez's decision, finding that questions on the electoral process of Puerto Rico are matters for the Puerto Rico local court system headed by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico.