Chief Magistrate is a generic designation for a public official whose office—individual or collegial—is the highest in his or her class, in either of the fundamental meanings of Magistrate (which often overlapped in the Ancien régime): as a major political and administrative office (in a republican form of government, at state or lower level), and/or as a judge (in a given jurisdiction, not necessarily a whole state).
Read more about Chief Magistrate: Governing Chief Magistrates, Sources and References
Famous quotes containing the words chief and/or magistrate:
“One’s ignorance is one’s chief asset.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“No true believer could be intolerant or a persecutor. If I were a magistrate and the law carried the death penalty against atheists, I would begin by sending to the stake whoever denounced another.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)