The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the judiciary of the US state of Washington. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and eight Justices. Members of the Court are elected to six-year terms. Justices must retire at the end of the calendar year in which they reach the age of 75, per the Washington State Constitution.
The Chief Justice is chosen by secret ballot by the Justices to serve a 4-year term, with any justice elected to fill a vacancy in the office serving out the term of his or her predecessor. The current Chief Justice is Barbara Madsen who was elected to fill a vacancy in November 2010 and took office in January 2011, she was elected by her colleages to a full 4-year term in October 2012. Prior to January 1997 (pursuant to a Constitutional amendment adopted in 1995) the post of Chief Justice was held for a 2-year term by a justice who (i) was one of the Justices with 2 years left in their term, (ii) was the most senior in years of service of that cohort, and (iii) (generally) had not previously served as Chief Justice. The last Chief Justice under the rotation system, ] was the architect of the present internal election system, and was the first to be elected under the new procedure, serving until her resignation in 1999.
The court convenes in the Temple of Justice, a historic building on the Washington State Capitol campus in Olympia, Washington.
The persuasiveness of the Court's decisions reaches far beyond Washington's borders. A Supreme Court of California study published in 2007 found that the Washington Supreme Court's decisions were the second most widely followed by the appellate courts of all other US states in the period from 1940 to 2005 (second only to California).
Read more about Washington Supreme Court: Justices, Elections, Gallery
Other articles related to "court, washington supreme court, washington, supreme court":
... Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the decision for a unanimous Court, and overturned the previous Washington Supreme Court's ruling ... Justice Scalia outlined two reasons why the Court believed that the Washington statute was constitutional Using the Court precedents established by Abood ... The Washington Supreme Court argued that the clause "dissent is not to be presumed—it must affirmatively be made known to the union by the dissenting employee ...
... disfellowshipped, Barnett promptly filed a second appeal with the Washington State Supreme Court via a direct appeal ... Barnett argued that no court could impose a "fiduciary duty" upon a pastor for conduct arising from the pastoral-congregational relationship ... of Barnett and his congregation, and that no secular court has jurisdiction to decide issues pertaining to church doctrine and policy ...
... Barbara Madsen is the Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court ... She was elected to the court in 1992 as the first woman to be popularly elected to the Court in Washington state history ... In her 18 years on the Washington Supreme Court and 21 years on the bench Chief Justice Madsen has sat in judgement on thousands of cases ...
... The interior of the Washington State Supreme Court Inside the Law Library The foyer of the Temple of Justice building ...
... Kabul, Afghanistan, the trial began for eight foreign aid workers, as the nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court held preliminary deliberations. 5 - The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan denied Western diplomats access to a court where eight foreign aid workers were on trial for promoting Christianity, but Chief Justice Noor Mohammad Saqib said the ... of the arrested foreign aid workers would be meaningful only if it is held in an open court ...
Famous quotes containing the words court, washington and/or supreme:
“The city is recruited from the country. In the year 1805, it is said, every legitimate monarch in Europe was imbecile. The city would have died out, rotted, and exploded, long ago, but that it was reinforced from the fields. It is only country which came to town day before yesterday, that is city and court today.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“While I do not think it was so intended I have always been of the opinion that this turned out to be much the best for me. I had no national experience. What I have ever been able to do has been the result of first learning how to do it. I am not gifted with intuition. I need not only hard work but experience to be ready to solve problems. The Presidents who have gone to Washington without first having held some national office have been at great disadvantage.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“It was the supreme expression of the mediocrity of the apparatus that Stalin himself rose to his position.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)