North Dakota Supreme Court

From Judgepedia

The North Dakota Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of North Dakota.

Jurisdiction

According to the constitution of North Dakota, "The supreme court shall be the highest court of the state. It shall have appellate jurisdiction, and shall also have original jurisdiction with authority to issue, hear, and determine such original and remedial writs as may be necessary to properly exercise its jurisdiction."^[1] In its adjudicative capacity, the Supreme Court is primarily an appellate court with jurisdiction to hear appeals from decisions of the district courts.^[2]

Case load

The 2002 annual report for the North Dakota courts reported a 138% increase in appeals of drug offenses, which contributed to the overall increase in new filings in the Supreme Court. According to the report, "appeals in tort, malpractice, probate and attorney discipline cases increased more than other civil case filings. The number of appeals in family related cases, remained relatively stable, accounting for 22% of the civil caseload in 2002. This is down from 28% last year. The most appeals originated from the South Central Judicial District, followed by the East Central, Northwest Southeast, Northeast Central, Northeast and Southwest Districts." The Justices each authored an average of 42 majority opinions, and an additional 71 opinions concurring and/or dissenting with the majority position were separately authored.^[3]

The court's justices

Selection of justices

The five justices on the court are elected to ten-year terms in nonpartisan elections.^[4]

Qualifications

According to the North Dakota constitution, "Supreme court justices and district court judges shall be citizens of the United States and residents of this state, shall be learned in the law, and shall possess any additional qualifications prescribed by law. Judges of other courts shall be selected for such terms and shall have such qualifications as may be prescribed by law."

Current justices

The justices of the North Dakota Supreme Court are currently:

Chief justice

Gerald VandeWalle is the Chief Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court. Justice VandeWalle was appointed to the state Supreme Court in August 1978, by Governor Arthur Link, a Democratic governor. Since that appointment, VandeWalle has been elected to the high court three times, and selected chief justice by his colleagues four times. His current term ends in 2014. The Chief Justice is elected every five years by vote of the Supreme Court justices and the District Court justices. In the case of a vacancy, the Governor may appoint the replacement to serve two years prior to the general election.^[5]

History of the court

The Supreme Court of the Dakota Territory was created in the Territorial capital of Yankton in 1861. The court consisted of three justices, Chief Justice Philemon Bliss and associate justices George Williston and Joseph Williams. Many of the early justices of the Territory were appointed by Presidents Lincoln and Grant. In 1879, a fourth justice was added to the court; the size of the court increased two more times, once in 1884 to six justices, and again in 1888 to eight.^[6] The Constitution of the state was adopted in 1889. By 1930, a Constitutional Amendment increased the length of terms for justices to 10 years.

Compensation

The Constitution has provided compensation for the justices as prescribed by the legislature; the salary remains throughout the term. (1889 N.D. Constitution, Sec. 99). Initially, all justices received an annual salary of $4,000. (Rev. Code 1895, Sec. 379, and Rev. Code 1899, Sec. 379). Throughout the years, the salary increased. Even with the 1999 salary increase, which compensates the Chief Justice $86,172 and the Justices $83,807, the North Dakota Supreme Court Justices are among the lowest paid in the nation.

Demographics of the Court

Twenty-five justices first attained their position on the Court by elective process, whereas twenty-five came to the bench by appointment.^[7]

See also

• North Dakota Court of Appeals
• North Dakota judicial news
• North Dakota blogs

External links

• North Dakota Supreme Court Official Site
• List of Territorial Justices

References

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