Tennessee Supreme Court

The Tennessee Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It has five members, a chief justice and four justices, and its three buildings are seated in Nashville, Knoxville and Jackson. The state constitution requires it to rotate its meetings among the three Grand Divisions of the state, East, Middle and West Tennessee, and allows no more than two justices to come from the same Grand Division, a rule meant to prevent regional bias. Unlike other states, where the attorney general is elected or appointed by the governor or legislature, the Tennessee Supreme Court appoints the Tennessee attorney general. The court has no original jurisdiction. Tennessee had no provision for a judicial branch in its constitution when it became a state in 1796, so the legislature created a Superior Court that acted as both a trial and an appellate court; in 1809 a Supreme Court of Error and Appeals that heard only appeals replaced it, and the constitution of 1835 made the judiciary an independent branch. The constitution of 1870 called for five justices.