New Hampshire Supreme Court

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New Hampshire Supreme Court
Court information
Justices:   5
Founded:   1776
Location:   Concord, New Hampshire
Judicial selection
Method:   Comm. select., Gov. appt.
Term:   Until retirement or the age of 70
Active justices

Gary Hicks  •  Linda Dalianis  •  Carol Conboy  •  Robert J. Lynn  •  

Former justices

Contents

The New Hampshire Supreme Court is the supreme court of the state of New Hampshire and sole appellate court of the state. The Supreme Court is seated in the state capital, Concord. Associate Justice David Souter of the Supreme Court of the United States served on the New Hampshire Supreme Court from 1983 to 1990.

Justices

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has 4 justices.
JudgeTermAppointed byParty
Justice Gary Hicks2006-presentJohn Lynch
Chief Justice Linda Dalianis2000-presentJeanne Shaheen
Justice Carol Conboy2009-presentJohn Lynch
Justice Robert J. Lynn2010-presentJohn Lynch

Chief justice

Linda Dalianis is the Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. She was appointed to this position by Governor John Lynch in 2010.

Jurisdiction

The court hears a variety of cases, most of which are either mandatory or discretionary appeals from the lower courts.

Mandatory appeals

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has jurisdiction to review appeals from the lower courts. When the court only accepted 40 percent of the appeals in 2003, the Supreme Court instituted "mandatory appeals on the final decisions on the merits from the Family Division and the District, Probate and Superior Courts," under Supreme Court Rule 7 in January 2004.

Discretionary appeals and original jurisdiction

Conditions that make appeals discretionary are: "a post-conviction review proceeding; a proceeding involving the collateral challenge to a conviction or sentence; a sentence modification or suspension proceeding; an imposition of sentence proceeding; a parole revocation proceeding; or a probation revocation proceeding...Administrative appeals, interlocutory appeals and interlocutory transfers, and certain limited appeals from the decisions of the trial courts are also discretionary appeals. The court also has original jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari, prohibition, habeas corpus and other writs, which the court has discretion to decide which cases to hear."

Three Judges Expedited (3JX)

In December 2000, the Supreme Court created the "Three Judges Expedited" (3JX) to reduce the number of cases that must be heard.

Judicial selection

The Court is comprised of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices appointed by the Governor and Executive Council to serve during "good behavior" until retirement or the age of seventy. Part II, Article 46 of the state constitution, states that justices are nominated and appointed by the Governor and Executive Council. Nominations must be made at least three days before the appointment, and must be approved by the majority of the Executive Council. In the case of a vacancy of the court, the Chief Justice or a senior associate justice can assign a former justice of the court.[1]

Qualifications

Part II, Article 73 of the state constitution states all judicial officers shall hold their offices during good behavior, unless the constitution states otherwise. Part II, Article 78 limits judges of any court from holding court once that judge has reached the age of seventy years old. Additionally, justices on the New Hampshire Supreme Court hold tenure until the age of mandatory retirement.

Removal of justices

The state constitution provides two methods for removing judicial officers, based on whom is bringing such action. Part II, Article 73 states that "the Governor with consent of the Executive Council may remove any commissioned officer for reasonable cause upon the address of both houses of the legislature; that the cause for removal shall be stated fully and substantially in the address and shall not be a cause which is a sufficient ground for impeachment; and provided further that no officer shall be so removed unless he shall have had an opportunity to be heard in his defense by a joint committee of both houses of the legislature." Part II, Article 17 also states, "The house of representatives shall be the grand inquest of the state; and all impeachments made by them, shall be heard and tried by the senate."

  • The first impeachment trial of a Supreme Court justice occurred in 1790 with Justice Woodbury Langdon. The House of Representatives of New Hampshire voted to impeach him, but as the trial in the Senate was postponed, Justice Woodbury resigned.
  • In April 2000, Justice David Brock was impeached by the House of Representatives, but when the matter went to the Senate, Justice Brock was not convicted.

Caseloads

Fiscal Year Cases pending January 1 New filings Dispositions Opinions Issued
2008 575 948 983 140
2007 745 924 1,096 196
2006 671 953 879 158
2005 523 938 884 146
2004 346 898 721 151
2003 389 842 893 186
2002 - 794 917 179
2001 - 797 1,020 208

[2]

Salaries

The Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court earns $151,477 annually, while associate justices earn $146,917, as of January 2010.[3][4]

Notable decisions

Attorney General

  • Bokowsky v. State & a., 111 N.H. 57 (1971) - The New Hampshire Attorney General has authority to enter a nolle prosequi in prosecutions initiated by public officials or by private persons.

Educational Funding

Judicial Review

  • Merrill v. Sherburne, 1 N.H. 204 (1819) - the Supreme Court of Judicature ruled the General Court's practice of passing bills to give people new trials in certain cases unconstitutional; the practice was common during the American Revolution, but was only done on a case-by-case basis post-Revolution.

Reasonable Doubt

  • State v. Wentworth, 118 N.H. 832 (1978) - prescribed a model charge for trial judges to instruct a jury on the issue of reasonable doubt, which was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Tsoumas v. State of New Hampshire, 611 F.2d 412 (1980).
  • State v. Aubert, 120 N.H. 634 (1980) - the court reversed a conviction which used an alternate reasonable doubt instruction, the court indicated that trial judges should not depart from the Wentworth instruction.

U.S. Supreme Court cases

  • Sweezy v. New Hampshire, citing the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the affirmation of a contempt finding against a "subversive person" who refused to answer questions about his activities to the Attorney General and subsequently refused in the State Superior Court.

History of the court

New Hampshire Supreme Court building

As a colony, New Hampshire adopted a temporary 1776 Constitution, which established the "Superior Court of Judicature" consisting of four justices. By 1876, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire was created with an act by the legislature, and in 1901, the legislature changed the judiciary again by replacing the Supreme Court with two other courts. Sixty-five years later, the state constitution was amended to established the Supreme Court and the Superior Court in the constitution. From 1965 and on, only a constitutional amendment could alter the appellate courts. In the 1970s and 1980s, changes were made to the role of the Chief Justice, giving that position the authority and for the operation and administration of all courts in the state.[5] In 2000, the Judicial Conduct Commission was announced by the Supreme Court, which had the role that the Judicial Conduct Committee had had.[6]

Notable firsts

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ RSA 490:3
  2. ↑ New Hampshire Judicial Branch, "Supreme Court Biennial Report"
  3. ↑ The Sunshine Review, "New Hampshire state government salary," August 17, 2011
  4. ↑ The National Center for State Courts, "Judicial Salary Resource Center" as of Jan. 1, 2010
  5. ↑ Unified Court System
  6. ↑ RSA Chapter 494-A

Portions of this article have been taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Copyright Notice can be found here.

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