List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia

This is a list of past and present members of the Supreme Court of Virginia. The court's name was the Supreme Court of Appeals until it was changed in 1971. Members were titled Judge until a 1928 constitutional amendment changed the title to Justice and designated the presiding member Chief Justice.

The court presently is made up of seven justices, each elected by a majority vote of both houses of the General Assembly for a term of twelve years. To be eligible for election, a candidate must be a resident of Virginia and must have been a member of the Virginia State Bar for at least five years. Vacancies on the court occurring between sessions of the General Assembly may be filled by the Governor for a term expiring thirty days after the commencement of the next session of the General Assembly. The Chief Justice presently is chosen by a vote of the seven justices for a term of four years. There is no statutory limit to the number of four-year terms to which a Chief Justice may be elected. However, the Court has stated that the justices internally adopted a two-term limit.

State law requires justices, like all Virginia jurists, to retire no later than twenty days after the commencement of the next regular session of the General Assembly following their seventy-third birthday. The court may designate up to five retired justices to serve as Senior Justices, each for a renewable one-year term. Senior justices may sit with the court either to hear petitions for appeal or to hear cases on the merits, particularly to replace any of the seven active justices who may be recused from hearing a specific case. In addition, a retired justice who has not been designated as a senior justice may sit with the court by special designation.

The Constitution of 1776 provided for a Supreme Court of Appeals but did not specify its structure, leaving the General Assembly to organize the court by statute. The first such statute was enacted at the October 1778 legislative session. From that time until 1788, no one was appointed or elected specifically to serve on the Supreme Court of Appeals. Rather, the court was made up of the three judges of the High Court of Chancery, the five judges of the General Court, and the three judges of the Court of Admiralty, each of whom was elected by the General Assembly to life terms on those courts and served on the Supreme Court of Appeals ex officio.

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