Kentucky Supreme Court

The Kentucky Supreme Court is the state supreme court of Kentucky. A constitutional amendment created it in 1975; before that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in the state, and that court is now the intermediate appellate court. Criminal appeals involving a sentence of death, life imprisonment or twenty years or more come directly to it, bypassing the Court of Appeals, and all other cases reach it on a discretionary basis. The court promulgates the Rules of Court and Rules of Evidence and, through the Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions and the Kentucky Bar Association, is the final arbiter of bar admission and discipline. Its justices are elected in nonpartisan elections to eight-year terms, and the court meets on the second floor of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort.