North Carolina Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state's highest appellate court. Until the Court of Appeals was created in 1967 it was the only appellate court in the state. Its roots lie in the Court of Conference of 1799, which was renamed the Supreme Court in 1805, but the present independent court came from an act of 1818 proposed by State Senator William Gaston, and it held its first meeting on January 1, 1819, with John Louis Taylor as chief justice. It now consists of a chief justice and six associate justices who are elected to eight-year terms, and the constitution lets the General Assembly add two more. The court decides questions of law from the lower courts and state agencies, reviews capital cases and utilities rate decisions, and has original jurisdiction only over judicial discipline. It is required to meet in Raleigh, where it sits in the Justice Building, and its chief justice administers the state court system.