The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists of six associate justices and one chief justice, although the number of justices has varied from time to time. The primary function of the Supreme Court is to decide questions of law that have arisen in the lower courts and before state administrative agencies.
History
The first North Carolina appellate court, created in 1799, was called the Court of Conference and consisted of several North Carolina Superior Court judges sitting en banc twice each year to review appeals from their own courts. In 1805 it was named the Supreme Court, and a seal and motto were to be procured. From the time the North Carolina General Assembly created the Court as a distinct body in 1818 until 1868, the members of the Court were chosen by the General Assembly and served for life, or "during good behavior." The legislature appointed John Louis Taylor, Leonard Henderson, and John Hall as the first Supreme Court judges. The three judges were allowed to select their own Chief Justice, and they chose Taylor. The Court first met on January 1, 1819. Since the adoption of the 1868 state constitution, each justice has been elected by the people to an eight-year term. There are no term limits. The General Assembly made Supreme Court elections non-partisan starting with the 2004 elections, but later made them partisan again after the 2016 elections. Susie Sharp became the court's first female justice in 1962. In 2011, the court had a female majority for the first time. The Supreme Court is housed in the Law and Justice Building, located across from the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina. The building was built in 1940 and underwent major renovations in 2005–2007. In 1975, a new seal was adopted. The old Latin phrase Suum cuique was amended to Suum cuique tribuere.
''Bayard v. Singleton''
The court's decision in Bayard v. Singleton is among its most significant. That case, involving a dispute over property confiscated during the Revolutionary War, was the first in America to declare a legislative act unconstitutional thus establishing the principle of judicial review that was later adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison. The case involved a host of North Carolina's Revolutionary Era luminaries; future U.S. Supreme Court JusticeAlfred Moore argued the case on behalf of the state and the opinion in the case was written by Patriot leader future Governor of North CarolinaSamuel Ashe. Though the case was technically decided by the North Carolina Superior Court before the Supreme Court of North Carolina was established, it is now widely attributed to the state supreme court.
