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Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court | |
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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.
Although it was historically composed of four associate justices and one chief justice, the court is currently composed of six associate justices and one chief justice.
History
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court traces its history back to the high court of the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, which was chartered in 1692. Under the terms of that charter, Governor Sir William Phips established the Superior Court of Judicature as the province's local court of last resort (some of the court's decisions could be appealed to courts in England). When the Massachusetts State Constitution was established in 1780, legislative and judicial records show that the state's high court, although renamed, was a continuation of provincial high court. During and after the period of the American Revolution the court had members who were appointed by royal governors, the executive council of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress (which acted as the state's executive from 1775 to 1780), and governors elected under the state constitution.
Location
The SJC is sits at the John Adams Courthouse, One 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..." 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.
Current composition
The currently serving justices are:
Justice | Began active service |
Appointed by |
Roderick L. Ireland | 1997 (Assoc.) 2010 (Chief) |
William Weld (1997) Deval Patrick (2010) |
Margot Botsford | 2007 | Deval Patrick |
Robert J. Cordy | 2001 | Paul Cellucci |
Fernande R.V. Duffly | 2011 | Deval Patrick |
Ralph Gants | 2009 | Deval Patrick |
Barbara Lenk | 2011 | Deval Patrick |
Francis X. Spina | 1999 | Paul Cellucci |
Notable members
- William Cushing, Horace Gray, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. were Chief Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court when they appointed to serve as Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
- Lemuel Shaw was one of the greatest judges in the early years of the United States
- Charles Fried, who served on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1995 to 1999, was United States Solicitor General from 1985 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan
List of Chief Justices
Associate justices appointed by royal governors (1692-1775)
All judges appointed before 1695 were reappointed in that year (except John Richards, who had died) because the legislation creating the court was vetoed in that year by the Privy Council. Several further attempts to legislate the court's existence were vetoed, and it was not until 1699 that the provincial assembly enacted laws creating courts that satisfied the Privy Council.
Justice | Began active service |
Ended active service |
Appointed by |
Notes |
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Thomas Danforth | 1692 | 1699 | Sir William Phips | Died in office. |
Wait Winthrop | 1692 | 1701 | Sir William Phips | Promoted to chief justice; resigned in 1702. Winthrop rejoined the court as chief justice in 1708, and died while holding that office in 1717. |
John Richards | 1692 | 1694 | Sir William Phips | Died in office. |
Samuel Sewall | 1692 | 1718 | Sir William Phips | Promoted to chief justice; resigned 1728. |
Elisha Cooke, Sr. | 1695 | 1702 | William Stoughton | Died in office. |
John Walley | 1700 | 1712 | William Stoughton | Died in office. |
John Saffin | 1701 | 1702 | Governor's Council | Appointment not renewed upon the accession of Queen Anne. |
John Hathorne | 1702 | 1712 | Joseph Dudley | Resigned. |
John Leverett | 1702 | 1708 | Joseph Dudley | Resigned. |
Jonathan Curwin | 1708 | 1715 | Joseph Dudley | Appointment not renewed upon the accession of King George I. |
Benjamin Lynde, Sr. | 1712 | 1729 | Joseph Dudley | Promoted to chief justice; died in office, 1745. |
Nathaniel Thomas | 1712 | 1718 | Joseph Dudley | Died in office. |
Addington Davenport | 1715 | 1736 | Died in office. | |
Edmund Quincy | 1718 | 1737 | Samuel Shute | Resigned. |
Paul Dudley | 1718 | 1745 | Samuel Shute | Promoted to chief justice; died in office, 1751. |
John Cushing | 1728 | 1733 | William Burnet | Resigned. |
Jonathan Remington | 1733 | 1745 | Jonathan Belcher | Died in office. |
Richard Saltonstall | 1736 | 1756 | Jonathan Belcher | Resigned. |
Thomas Graves | 1737 | 1738 | Jonathan Belcher | Resigned. |
Stephen Sewall | 1739 | 1752 | Jonathan Belcher | Promoted to chief justice; died in office, 1760. |
Nathaniel Hubbard | 1745 | 1746 | William Shirley | |
Benjamin Lynde, Jr. | 1747 | 1769 | William Shirley | Promoted to chief justice; resigned, 1771. |
John Cushing, Jr. | 1747 | 1771 | William Shirley | Resigned. |
Chambers Russell | 1752 | 1766 | Spencer Phips | Died in office. |
Peter Oliver | 1756 | 1772 | William Shirley | Promoted to chief justice; forced out during revolution, 1775. |
Edmund Trowbridge | 1767 | 1775 | Francis Bernard | Forced out during revolution. |
Foster Hutchinson | 1771 | 1775 | Thomas Hutchinson | Forced out during revolution. |
Nathaniel Ropes | 1772 | 1774 | Thomas Hutchinson | Died in office. |
William Cushing | 1772 | 1777 | Thomas Hutchinson | Survived reorganization of the court, 1775; promoted to chief justice, 1777; resigned upon appointment to United States Supreme Court, 1789. |
William Brown | 1774 | 1775 | Thomas Hutchinson | Brown's appointment was approved during the tenure of Governor Thomas Gage, but was made by Hutchinson. Brown was forced out during the revolution. |
Justices appointed by the Provincial Congress (1775-1780)
Justice | Began active service |
Ended active service |
Notes |
---|---|---|---|
John Adams | 1775 | 1776 | Adams never sat with the court, and resigned in 1776. |
Nathaniel Sargent | 1775 | 1791 | Appointed chief justice by John Hancock in 1790. |
William Reed | 1775 | Refused | Reed refused the appointment. |
Robert Treat Paine | 1776 | Refused | Paine refused the appointment. |
James Warren | 1776 | Refused | Warren refused the appointment. |
Jedediah Foster | 1776 | 1779 | Died in office. |
James Sullivan | 1776 | 1807 | Resigned to become governor. |
David Sewall | 1777 | 1789 | Resigned to become judge of the United States District Court for Maine. |
Associate justices appointed under the state constitution (1780-present)
Citation
The proper legal citation for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is "Mass."
Notes
- Zobel, Hiller (1970). Boston Massacre, pp. 243–265
- Zobel, pp. 269–286
- Lowell, Delmar R., The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899 (p 35); Rutland VT, The Tuttle Company, 1899; ISBN 978-0-7884-1567-8.
- Boston Globe: Frank Phillips, "Patrick to name first African-American chief justice of SJC," November 4, 2010, accessed April 4, 2011
- Boston Herald: "Newest Mass. SJC Justice ‘Nan’ Duffly takes seat," February 7, 2011, accessed April 4, 2011
- Levenson, Michael (May 4, 2011). "Lenk approved for SJC; first openly gay justice on state's highest court". Boston Globe. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
References
- Davis, William (1900). History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts
- Massachusetts Civil List for the Colonial and Provincial Periods
- Reno, Conrad. Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England, Volume 1
External links
- Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
- List of Chief Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court
- Office of the Reporter of Decisions of the SJC
- 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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See also: Political party strength in Massachusetts |
Highest judicial bodies in the United States | |
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Federal courts | |
State supreme courts |
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Territorial supreme courts | |
Obsolete | |
Complete list |
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