Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

History

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court traces its history back to the high court of the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, which was chartered in 1692. Under the terms of that charter, Governor Sir William Phips established the Superior Court of Judicature as the province's local court of last resort (some of the court's decisions could be appealed to courts in England). When the Massachusetts State Constitution was established in 1780, legislative and judicial records show that the state's high court, although renamed, was a continuation of provincial high court. During and after the period of the American Revolution the court had members who were appointed by royal governors, the executive council of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress (which acted as the state's executive from 1775 to 1780), and governors elected under the state constitution.

Location and citation

The SJC sits at the John Adams Courthouse, One Pemberton Square, Boston, Massachusetts 02108, which also houses the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the Social Law Library. The legal citation for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is "Mass."

Landmark cases

• Rex v. Preston (1770) – Captain Thomas Preston, the Officer of the Day during the Boston Massacre, was acquitted when the jury was unable to determine whether he had ordered the troops to fire. The defense counsel in the case was a young attorney named John Adams, later the second President of the United States.
• Rex v. Wemms, et al. (1770) – Six soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre were found not guilty, and two morethe only two proven to have firedwere found guilty of manslaughter.
• Commonwealth v. Nathaniel Jennison (1783) – The Court declared slavery unconstitutional in the state of Massachusetts by allowing slaves to sue their masters for freedom. Boston lawyer, and member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1779, John Lowell, upon the adoption of Article I for inclusion in the Massachusetts Constitution, exclaimed: "I will render my services as a lawyer gratis to any slave suing for his freedom if it is withheld from him ..." With this case, he fulfilled his promise. Slavery in Massachusetts was denied legal standing.
• Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) – The Court established that trade unions were not necessarily criminal or conspiring organizations if they did not advocate violence or illegal activities in their attempts to gain recognition through striking. This legalized the existence of non-socialist or non-violent trade organizations, though trade unions would continue to be harassed legally through anti-trust suits and injunctions.
• Roberts v. Boston (1850) – The Court established the "separate but equal" doctrine that would later be used in Plessy v. Ferguson by maintaining that the law gave school boards complete authority in assigning students to schools and that they could do so along racial lines if they deemed it appropriate.
• Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (2003) – The Court ruled 4–3 that the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated the Massachusetts Constitution. The decision was stayed for 180 days to allow the legislature time to amend the law to comply with the decision. In December 2003, the state Senate asked the SJC whether "civil unions" would comply with their ruling. The SJC replied that civil unions were insufficient, and civil marriage was required. The legislature made no further action, and the stay expired on May 17, 2004. The state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples the same day. This decision was one of the first in the world to find that same-sex couples have a right to marry.

Composition

The Court consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts with the consent of the Governor's Council.

The Justices hold office until the mandatory retirement age of seventy, like all other Massachusetts judges since 1972.

Current composition

Main article: List of justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Vacancies and pending nominations

Notable members

• William Cushing, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1790–1810)
• Charles Devens, United States Attorney General (1877–81)
• Charles Fried, United States Solicitor General (1985–89)
• Horace Gray, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1882–1902)
• Ebenezer R. Hoar, United States Attorney General (1869–70)
• Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1902–32)
• Lemuel Shaw, Chief Justice, father-in-law of Herman Melville
• Theophilus Parsons, Federalist leader, Constitutional scholar

Notes

References

Works cited

• Davis, William (1900). History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts
• Massachusetts Civil List for the Colonial and Provincial Periods
• Reno, Conrad. Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England, Volume 1

References

1. "Supreme Court - Courts - Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania".
2. The Virginia Supreme Court was founded as a appellate Court in 1623; it became a Supreme Court in 1779; The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania was founded as a Provincial Court in 1684; it became a Supreme Court in 1722;the New York Supreme Court was established as the Supreme Court of Judicature by the Province of New York on May 6, 1691. It became the New York Supreme Court under the New York Constitutional Convention of 1846.
3. "Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts home page".
4. Eichholz, Alice. (2004). "Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources". Ancestry Publishing.
5. "About the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania – SCOPA Review".
6. "John Adams Courthouse {{!}} Mass.gov".
7. Zobel, Hiller (1970). ''Boston Massacre'', pp. 243–265
8. Zobel, pp. 269–286
9. [[Delmar R. Lowell. Lowell, Delmar R.]], ''The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899'' (p 35); Rutland VT, The Tuttle Company, 1899; {{ISBN. 978-0-7884-1567-8.