Louisiana Supreme Court

The Louisiana Supreme Court is the highest court and court of last resort in the American state of Louisiana. It has seven justices, each elected from one of seven Supreme Court districts for a ten-year term, and the justice with the longest tenure serves as chief justice rather than being chosen in a separate vote. The court sits in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Its roots and the state law it applies reach back to the French and Spanish colonial governments of the eighteenth century, beginning with a Superior Council created by a French charter in 1712 that served as a court of last resort in civil and criminal cases. As the American Territory of Orleans it received a three-judge Superior Court in 1804, and the first state constitution of 1812 created a single supreme court, whose size, selection and powers were reworked by successive constitutions through 1974. Today the court has original jurisdiction over discipline of judges and lawyers, exclusive appellate jurisdiction over cases in which a state law has been held unconstitutional or a death sentence has been imposed, and supervisory and rule-making authority over all lower state courts.