State Supreme Court of Georgia (U.S. state)
| Supreme Court of Georgia | |
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| Established | 1841 |
| Country | Georgia, United States |
| Location | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Authorized by | Georgia Constitution |
| Decisions are appealed to | Supreme Court of the United States |
| Website | Official website |
| Chief Justice | |
| Currently | Harris Hines |
The Supreme Court of Georgia is the highest judicial authority of the US state of Georgia. The court was established in 1845 as a three-member panel. Since 1896, the justices (increased in number to six, then to seven in 1945, and finally to nine in 2017) have been elected by the people, and today those elections are non-partisan. Three of the state's nine sitting Justices were re-elected, all unopposed, in 2012.
The first Chief Justice of the Court was Joseph Henry Lumpkin, who was appointed in 1863. There have been 27 Chief Justices, and the current Chief Justice of the Court is Harris Hines.
Georgia was established as a state in 1788. In the state's early days the justice system was set up so that matters of law were settled at a local level. This is how courts were settled up until 1799 when the Judiciary Act was put into place. The Judiciary Act stated that the judges of Georgia would meet annually and discuss any laws or rules that may have or would cause argument among the state. This allowed much of the laws and rules to be somewhat unanimous in all regions of the state. However, this was short to last as in 1801 an act called for anything that was discussed at these meetings to be returned to each county by its appointed judge and there it would be discussed further and decided upon county by county. This brought matters back to a local level. This meant that local court law was the only way to achieve justice and it caused a huge lack of uniformity among courts until the establishment of the Supreme Court was urged by governor George W. Crawford. The order for a Supreme Court of Georgia was amended to the constitution in 1835; however, it was not established until 1845 and was implemented in 1846, decades after the Revolutionary War. The original court consisted of three justices: Joseph Henry Lumpkin, the presiding justice, Hiram Warner, and Eugenius A. Nisbet. Their salaries were $2,500 a year.
In the Court of Appeals, 12 judges are selected to serve 6 year terms. They are elected through nonpartisan elections. The Chief Justice serves for two years.
The Supreme Court of Georgia has the right and authority over every case that involves the review of select appellate jurisdiction. The cases in which it can perform rule over are the cases that bring in question of constitutionality of a law, constitutional arrangement, or mandate. Any election contest can be judged by the Supreme Court of Georgia and the cases it has appellate jurisdiction in are the following:
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Wikipedia