North Carolina Supreme Court
Encyclopedia : N : NO : NOR : North Carolina Supreme Court
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 at different times. 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 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. This court was called the Supreme Court from 1805 to 1818. From the court's creation as a distinct body in 1818 to 1868, the members of the Court were chosen by the North Carolina General Assembly. 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.
Since the adoption of the 1868 state constitution, each justice has been elected (separately) statewide to an eight-year term. Today, these races are non-partisan.
The Court's current (February 2006) members are:
- Sarah Parker, Chief Justice
- Mark Martin
- George L. Wainwright, Jr.
- Robert H. Edmunds, Jr.
- Edward Thomas Brady
- Paul Martin Newby
- Patricia Timmons-Goodson
Former Justices (Reverse Chronological Order)
- I. Beverly Lake, Jr., Chief Justice (2001-2006)
- Robert F. Orr
- G.K. Butterfield
- Henry Frye, Chief Justice (1999-2001)
- Franklin Freeman
- James A. Wynn, Jr.
- Willis Whichard
- Harry C. Martin
- Louis B. Meyer
- Burley Mitchell, Chief Justice (1995-1999)
- John Webb
- James G. Exum, Chief Justice (1986-1995)
- Rhoda Billings, Chief Justice (1986)
- J. Phil Carlton
- Joseph Branch, Chief Justice (1979-1986)
- David M. Britt
- Daniel K. Moore
- Susie Sharp, Chief Justice (1975-1979)
- William H. Bobbitt, Chief Justice (1969-1974)
- R. Hunt Parker, Chief Justice (1966-1969)
- I. Beverly Lake Sr.
- Emery B. Denny, Chief Justice
- M.V. Barnhill, Chief Justice (1954-?)
- William B. Rodman, Jr.
- Carlisle W. Higgins
- Sam Ervin
- Aaron A. F. Seawell
- J. Wallace Winborne
- Michael Schenck
- George W. Connor
- Heriot Clarkson
- W. J. Brogden
- William J. Adams
- William Reynolds Allen
- William A. Hoke
- William A. Devin, Chief Justice (1951?-1954)
- Walter P. Stacy, Chief Justice (1925-1951)
- George H. Brown
- Platt D. Walker
- Walter Clark, Chief Justice (1903-1924)
- David M. Furches, Chief Justice (1900-1903)
- Robert M. Douglas
- W.T. Faircloth, Chief Justice
- William Nathan Harrell Smith, Chief Justice (1878-1889)
- Thomas Samuel Ashe
- Nathaniel Boyden
- Thomas Settle
- Edwin Godwin Reade
- John Kerr, Jr.
- Richmond Mumford Pearson, Chief Justice (1858–1878)
- Frederick Nash, Chief Justice (1852-1858)
- Thomas Ruffin, Chief Justice (1833-1852)
- William Gaston
- Joseph J. Daniel
- Leonard Henderson, Chief Justice (1829–1833)
- J.D. Toomer
- John Hall
- John Louis Taylor, first Chief Justice (1818-1829)
See also
External links
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