Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Difference between revisions
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|location=[[Boston, Massachusetts]] |
|location=[[Boston, Massachusetts]] |
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|type = Executive appointment with [[Governor's Council|quasi-legislative consent]] |
|type = Executive appointment with [[Massachusetts Governor's Council|quasi-legislative consent]] |
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|authority = [[Massachusetts Constitution]] |
|authority = [[Massachusetts Constitution]] |
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|appeals = [[Supreme Court of the United States]] |
|appeals = [[Supreme Court of the United States]] |
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Revision as of 21:36, 28 July 2010
42°21′33″N 71°03′39″W / 42.359297°N 71.060954°W
| Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Established | 1692 |
| Location | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Composition method | Executive appointment with quasi-legislative consent |
| Authorised by | Massachusetts Constitution |
| Appeals to | Supreme Court of the United States |
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SJC has the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere.
History
The court was established in 1692 as the "Superior Court of Judicature". It was formed by order of the British Crown in response to the large number of prosecutions stemming from the Salem Witch Trials. Its name was changed to the Supreme Judicial Court after the adoption of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780. In 1804 an official case reporter was created to publish the court's decisions, and the first officially reported decision was Gold v. Eddy (1804).
Functions
The seven Justices hear appeals on a broad range of criminal and civil cases between September and May.
Single Justice sessions are held each week throughout the year for certain motions pertaining to cases on trial or on appeal, bail reviews, bar discipline proceedings, petitions for admission to the bar, and a variety of other statutory proceedings. The Associate Justices sit as Single Justices each month on a rotation schedule.
The full bench renders approximately 200 written decisions each year; the single justices decide a total of approximately 600 cases annually.
In addition to its appellate functions, the SJC is responsible for the general superintendence of the judiciary and of the bar, the creation or approval of rules for the operations of all the state courts, and, in certain instances, providing advisory opinions, upon request, to the Governor and General Court on various legal issues.
The SJC also has oversight responsibility in varying degrees, according to statutes, with several affiliated agencies of the judicial branch, including the Board of Bar Overseers, the Office of Bar Counsel, the Board of Bar Examiners, the Clients' Security Board, the Commission on Judicial Conduct, the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, the Massachusetts Mental Health Legal Advisors’ Committee, and Correctional Legal Services, Inc.
The SJC is sits at the John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Boston, Massachusetts 02108, which also houses the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the Social Law Library.
Landmark cases
- Rex v. Preston (1770) - Captain Thomas Preston, the Officer of the Day during the Boston Massacre, was acquitted when the jury was unable to determine whether he had ordered the troops to fire. The defense counsel in the case was a young attorney named John Adams, later the second President of the United States.
- Rex v. Wemms, et al. (1770) - Six soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre were found not guilty, and two more– the only two proven to have fired– were found guilty of manslaughter.
- Commonwealth v. Nathaniel Jennison (1783) - The Court declared slavery unconstitutional in the state of Massachusetts by allowing slaves to sue their masters for freedom. Boston lawyer, and member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1779, John Lowell, upon the adoption of Article I for inclusion in the Massachusetts Constitution, exclaimed: "...I will render my services as a lawyer gratis to any slave suing for his freedom if it is withheld from him..."[1] With this case, he fulfilled his promise. Slavery in Massachusetts was denied legal standing.
- Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) - The Court established that trade unions were not necessarily criminal or conspiring organizations if they did not advocate violence or illegal activities in their attempts to gain recognition through striking. This legalized the existence of non-socialist or non-violent trade organizations, though trade unions would continue to be harassed legally through anti-trust suits and injunctions.
- Roberts v. Boston (1850) - The Court established the "separate but equal" doctrine that would later be used in Plessy v. Ferguson by maintaining that the law gave school boards complete authority in assigning students to schools and that they could do so along racial lines if they deemed it appropriate.
- Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (2003) - The Court ruled that the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated the Massachusetts Constitution.
Composition
The Court consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts with the consent of the Governor's Council. The Justices hold office until the mandatory retirement age of seventy, like all other Massachusetts judges. On July 21, 2010, Chief Justice Marshall announced her intention to retire in October 2010. A replacement has not yet been nominated.[2]
Current composition
The currently serving justices are:
| Justice | Began active service |
Appointed by |
| Margaret H. Marshall (Chief) | 1999 | William Weld |
| Margot Botsford | 2007 | Deval Patrick |
| Robert J. Cordy | 2001 | Paul Cellucci |
| Judith A. Cowin | 1999 | Paul Cellucci |
| Ralph Gants | 2009 | Deval Patrick |
| Roderick L. Ireland | 1997 | Paul Cellucci |
| Francis X. Spina | 1999 | Paul Cellucci |
Notable members
- William Cushing, Horace Gray, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. served on the Supreme Court of the United States after leaving the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- Charles Fried served as United States Solicitor General from 1985 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan
List of Chief Justices
Pre-Revolution
| # | Chief Justice | Took office | Left office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Stoughton | 1692 | 1701 | |
| 2 | Wait Winthrop | 1701 | 1701 | |
| 3 | Isaac Addington | 1702 | 1703 | |
| 4 | Wait Winthrop | 1708 | 1717 | |
| 5 | Samuel Sewall |  |
1718 | 1728 |
| 6 | Benjamin Lynde | 1729 | 1745 | |
| 7 | Paul Dudley | 1745 | 1751 | |
| 8 | Stephen Sewall | 1752 | 1760 | |
| 9 | Thomas Hutchinson | 1761 | 1769 | |
| 10 | Benjamin Lynde | 1769 | 1771 | |
| 11 | Peter Oliver | 1772 | 1775 | |
Post-Revolution
| # | Chief Justice | Took office | Left office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Adams |  |
1775 | 1776 |
| 2 | William Cushing |  |
1777 | 1789 |
| 3 | Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent | 1790 | 1791 | |
| 4 | Francis Dana |  |
1791 | 1806 |
| 5 | Theophilus Parsons |  |
1806 | 1813 |
| 6 | Samuel Sewall | 1814 | 1814 | |
| 7 | Isaac Parker | August 24, 1814 | July 25, 1830 | |
| 8 | Lemuel Shaw |  |
August 30, 1830 | August 21, 1860 |
| 9 | George Tyler Bigelow | September 7, 1860 | December 31, 1867 | |
| 10 | Reuben Atwater Chapman | February 7, 1868 | June 28, 1873 | |
| 11 | Horace Gray | File:Horace Gray.jpg | September 5, 1873 | January 9, 1882 |
| 12 | Marcus Morton | .png) |
January 16, 1882 | August 27, 1890 |
| 13 | Walbridge A. Field |  |
September 4, 1890 | July 15, 1899 |
| 14 | Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. |  |
August 2, 1899 | December 8, 1902 |
| 15 | Marcus Perrin Knowlton | December 17, 1902 | September 7, 1911 | |
| 16 | Arthur Prentice Rugg | September 20, 1911 | June 12, 1938 | |
| 17 | Fred Tarbell Field | June 30, 1938 | July 24, 1947 | |
| 18 | Stanley Elroy Qua | August 6, 1947 | September 6, 1956 | |
| 19 | Raymond Sanger Wilkins | September 13, 1956 | September 1, 1970 | |
| 20 | G. Joseph Tauro | 1970 | January 10, 1976 | |
| 21 | Edward F. Hennessey | 1976 | April 19, 1989 | |
| 22 | Paul J. Liacos | June 20, 1989 | September 30, 1996 | |
| 23 | Herbert P. Wilkins | October 1, 1996 | August 31, 1999 | |
| 24 | Margaret H. Marshall |  |
October 14, 1999 | Incumbent (faces mandatory retirement on September 1, 2014) |
All members after 1800
Citation
The proper legal citation for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is "Mass. S.J.C".
References
- ^ Lowell, Delmar R., The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899 (p 35); Rutland VT, The Tuttle Company, 1899; ISBN 9780788415678.
- ^ ^ http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/07/_the_listing_of.html
External links
- Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
- List of Chief Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court
- Supreme Judicial Court, Office of the Reporter of Decisions
Resources
- About the Supreme Court
- Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society
- Gay-Marriage Decision: Just the Beginning of the Debate
- Memoirs v. Massachusetts
- Simpson's Contemporary Quotations
Statewide government officials of Massachusetts | ||
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| U.S. senators |  | |
| State government | ||
| State Senate |
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| State House |
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| Supreme Judicial Court |
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