B. The Supreme Judicial Court
1. Introduction
2. A Brief History
3. The Justices
4. The Court's Departments
C. The Appeals Court
1. Introduction
2. A Brief History
3. The Justices
D. The Administrative Office of the Trial Court
E. The Trial Courts
F. An Overview of the Trial Process
G. An Overview of the Appellate Process
H. The Social Law Library
I. Footnotes
The Massachusetts Judicial System
The Supreme Judicial Court
1. Introduction
The Supreme Judicial Court, originally called the Superior Court of Judicature, was established in 1692 and is believed to be the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere. After the adoption of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, the name of the Court was changed to the Supreme Judicial Court. The Court operates under the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, the oldest, still functioning written constitution in the world.
The Supreme Judicial Court is the Commonwealth's highest appellate court. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices.
The seven Justices hear appeals on a broad range of criminal and civil cases from September through May. (To hear oral arguments before the Supreme Judicial Court, please visit the Windowpane entitled Listen to Oral Arguments Online.) The seven Justices usually sit as a group, but occasionally fewer than seven Justices may hear a case. Within several months of an oral argument, the Supreme Judicial Court will issue a written opinion. The opinion is the decision of the majority of the Justices. Other Justices may file dissenting opinions. Sometimes, a Justice agrees with the Court's decision but not its reasoning; in such an instance, a Justice may file a concurring opinion.
Single Justice Sessions are held each week throughout the year for certain motions pertaining to cases on trial or on appeal, bail reviews, bar discipline proceedings, petitions for admission to the bar, and a variety of other proceedings, including emergency matters. The Associate Justices rotate sitting as Single Justice each month. The full court renders approximately 200 written decisions each year; the single justices decide approximately 600 cases annually.
In addition to appellate functions, the Supreme Judicial Court is responsible for the general superintendence of the judiciary and of the bar, makes or approves rules for the operations of all the courts, and in certain instances, provides advisory opinions, upon request, to the Governor and Legislature on various legal issues.
The Supreme Judicial Court also oversees several affiliated agencies of the judicial branch, including the Board of Bar Overseers, the Board of Bar Examiners, the Clients' Security Board, the Massachusetts Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, and Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services.
2. A Brief History
The Supreme Judicial Court was established in 1692.
King William III (William of Orange) and Queen Mary II assumed the throne of England in 1688, an event known to us as the "Glorious Revolution." At this time, the colony of Massachusetts Bay had been without a charter for five years, as the previous charter had been revoked by King James II due to the colony's violating trade restrictions imposed by England and exhibiting religious intolerance toward members of the Anglican Church. In 1691, at the urging of Reverend Increase Mather, Rector of Harvard and Pastor of Second Church in Boston, King William and Queen Mary issued a charter which established the Province of Massachusetts. Known as the Second Charter, it authorized the provincial government to "erect and constitute judicatories and courts of record . . ." During the spring of 1692, as witchcraft hysteria gripped Salem and its environs, Colonial Governor William Phips appointed a special Court of Oyer and Terminer to hear and determine charges of witchcraft within the counties of Essex, Middlesex, and Suffolk. This Court permitted "spectral evidence," the testimony of an allegedly afflicted person that the accused had appeared in the form of an apparition. Between June 2 and October 29, 1692, the Court of Oyer and Terminer sentenced twenty people to death. This Court was dissolved at the end of October, 1692, but several dozen people remained in prison, awaiting trial on the charge of witchcraft.
On November 25, 1692, the General Court passed legislation creating the Superior Court of Judicature and various lower courts. The five Justices of the newly-established Superior Court of Judicature sat for the first time on January 3, 1693, in Salem. The new Court, which ignored spectral evidence as unreliable, heard the cases of twenty-six persons accused of witchcraft; twenty-three were found not guilty and the remaining three were later pardoned by the Governor.
The Superior Court of Judicature was a trial and appellate court; the court had original jurisdiction over felony prosecutions, and appeals consisted of trials de novo (a new trial with evidence).
The Superior Court of Judicature played an important role in this nation's struggle for independence. In 1761, the Court decided the "Writs of Assistance" case, one of the most important cases heard in colonial America. In that case, Boston attorney James Otis argued that the writs - general warrants that allowed officials to search for smuggled material within any suspected premises - violated man's inherent and inalienable rights. Though the court upheld the writs, Otis's argument galvanized the colonists. John Adams, who witnessed Otis's argument, wrote, "then and there, the child Independence was born."
In 1775, after the battles of Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts Revolutionary Council took over the colony's government and removed the justices of the Superior Court of Judicature. The Council replaced four of the five justices who had been appointed by the Royal Governor with revolutionary sympathizers, including John Adams, who was appointed as Chief Justice. 2 In 1780, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts went into effect and the Superior Court of Judicature was given a new name: the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Constitution proclaims the centrality of judicial independence in Article 29:
It is essential to the preservation of the rights of every individual, his life, liberty, property, and character, that there be an impartial interpretation of the laws, and administration of justice. It is the right of every citizen to be tried by judges as free, impartial, and independent as the lot of humanity will admit. It is, therefore, not only the best policy, but for the security of the rights of the people, and of every citizen, that the judges of the supreme judicial court should hold their offices as long as they behave themselves well, and that they should have honorable salaries ascertained and established by standing laws.
In February, 1781, Governor Hancock formally appointed the five justices serving on the Superior Court of Judicature as justices of the Supreme Judicial Court.3 A year later the legislature specified that the court consist of a Chief Justice and four other justices, and that "each... shall be an Inhabitant of this Commonwealth, of Sobriety of Manners, and learned in the Law." In 1800, the legislature increased the number of justices from five to seven. Between 1804 and 1873, the legislature changed the number of justices seven times, though the number of justices never went below four or above seven. Since 1873, the number of justices has remained at seven.
Over time, as the appellate caseload grew, the Supreme Judicial Court gradually relinquished its trial court jurisdiction. The legislature removed the court's original (trial) jurisdiction over tort cases in 1880 and over capital (murder) cases in 1891. The Appeals Court was created in 1972 to relieve the appellate burden on the Supreme Judicial Court.
3. The Justices
The seven Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court are:
Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall
Honorable Margaret H. Marshall is Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. A native of South Africa, she graduated from Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg in 1966. In 1966, she was elected as President of the National Union of South African Students, and served in that capacity until 1968, when she came to the United States to pursue her graduate studies. She received a master's degree from Harvard University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School. Chief Justice Marshall was an associate and partner in the Boston law firm of Csaplar & Bok, and a partner in the Boston law firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart. Before her appointment to the Supreme Judicial Court, she was Vice President and General Counsel of Harvard University. First appointed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court in November, 1996, she was named as Chief Justice in September, 1999, by Governor Paul Cellucci. Chief Justice Marshall is the second woman to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court in its more than 300-year history, and the first woman to serve as Chief Justice.
Associate Justice John M. Greaney
Honorable John M. Greaney, Associate Justice, was born in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1939. He received his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross, and his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar. Justice Greaney served with the 104th Tactical Fighter Group of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, and engaged in the general practice of law with the Springfield law firm of Ely and King for 10 years. Since 1974, Justice Greaney has lectured and written extensively for legal and judicial education programs. In 1974, he was appointed as the Presiding Justice of the Hampden County Housing Court. In 1976, he was appointed as an Associate Justice of the Superior Court. In 1978, he was appointed as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and in 1984 as that Court's Chief Justice. He was appointed to his present position by Governor Michael S. Dukakis on September 9, 1989. Justice Greaney has served as Chair of the Appellate Judges Conference of the American Bar Association. He is Co-Chair of the Supreme Judicial Court Judiciary/Media Committee, and President and Dean of the Flaschner Judicial Institute.
Associate Justice Roderick L. Ireland
Honorable Roderick L. Ireland was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court by Governor William F. Weld in 1997, and is the first African-American to sit on this bench. Previously, he served as an Associate Justice of the Appeals Court for seven years, and as an Associate Justice of the Boston Juvenile Court for almost thirteen years. Justice Ireland received his B.A. degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1966, his J.D. degree from Columbia University Law School in 1969, and his LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School in 1975. In 1998, Justice Ireland earned his Ph.D. at Northeastern University in its Law, Policy and Society Program. Highlights of Justice Ireland's legal career include: staff attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services in New York City; staff attorney at the Harvard Center for Law and Education; chief attorney, deputy and executive director at the Roxbury Defenders Committee; hearing officer for the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission; legal counsel for the Roxbury District Court Clinic; associate at Burnham, Stern and Shapiro; Assistant Secretary and Chief Legal Counsel for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Administration and Finance; and Chairman of the state Board of Appeal on Motor Vehicle Liability Policies and Bonds. Justice Ireland is an adjunct faculty member at both the School of Law and College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, and also serves as a faculty member of the Appellate Judges Seminar at New York University Law School. He is the author of Massachusetts Juvenile Law, volume 44 of the Massachusetts Practice Series, published by West Publishing Company in 1993. Since its inception in 1990, Justice Ireland has been an advisor and teacher for the SJC's Judicial Youth Corps, a court education program for high school students. Active in his community, Justice Ireland is a frequent speaker in schools, churches and community forums. He has been a member of the Eliot Church of Roxbury for many years, participating in numerous church-sponsored programs and initiatives. Among the many awards Justice Ireland has received throughout his career are the Boston College Law School's St. Thomas More Award; several Honorary Doctor of Law degrees; The Judicial Excellence Award from the Massachusetts Bar Association and Lawyers Weekly Newspaper in 2001; the Judicial Excellence Award from the Massachusetts Judges Conference in 1996; the prestigious Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award presented by the Boston Bar Association in 1990; and the Boston Covenant Peace Prize in 1982 in recognition of his efforts to promote racial justice.
Associate Justice Francis X. Spina
Honorable Francis X. Spina, Associate Justice, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1946. He received his B.A. from Amherst College and J.D. from Boston College Law School. From 1972 to 1974, Justice Spina served with Western Massachusetts Legal Services. From 1975 to 1977, he served as an Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Pittsfield Law Department. From 1979 to 1983, he served as Second Assistant District Attorney in the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office. Justice Spina was a partner with the Pittsfield law firms of Reder, Whalen, and Spina from 1983 to 1987, and Katz, Lapointe, and Spina from 1987 to 1993. Justice Spina served on the Superior Court from 1993 to 1997, and the Massachusetts Appeals Court from 1997 to 1999. He was appointed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court on October 14, 1999, by Governor Paul Cellucci.
Associate Justice Judith A. Cowin
Honorable Judith A. Cowin, Associate Justice, was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1942. A graduate of Wellesley College, she received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1970. From 1971 to 1972, she served as assistant legal counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. From 1972 to 1979, she was legal counsel for the Office of the Chief Justice of the District Court. She was an Assistant District Attorney in Norfolk County from 1979 to 1991, prosecuting jury-of-six cases from 1979 to 1980 and then felony cases in the Superior Court from 1980 to 1991. She was also a clinical field supervisor for Harvard Law School in 1980. In 1991, she was appointed an Associate Justice of the Superior Court, where she served until Governor Paul Cellucci appointed her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court in October 1999.
Associate Justice Robert J. Cordy
Honorable Robert J. Cordy, Associate Justice, was born in Manchester, Connecticut in 1949. He received his A.B. degree from Dartmouth College in 1971, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1974. Justice Cordy began his legal career in 1974 as a defense attorney for the Massachusetts Defenders Committee. From 1978 to 1979, he worked for the Department of Revenue, where he was a Special Assistant Attorney General. From 1979 to 1982, he was Associate General Counsel in Charge of Enforcement at the State Ethics Commission. From 1982 to 1987, Justice Cordy served as a federal prosecutor under U.S. Attorney William F. Weld. While in that office, he became Chief of the Public Corruption Unit. He was a partner in the law firm of Burns & Levinson in Boston from 1987 to 1991. From 1991 to 1993, he served as Chief Legal Counsel to then Governor Weld. In 1993, Justice Cordy joined the Boston office of the international law firm McDermott, Will & Emery, where he became Managing Partner. In addition to his other positions, he was a lecturer at Harvard Law School from 1987 to 1996. He was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court in February 2001 by Governor Paul Cellucci.
Associate Justice Margot Botsford
Honorable Margot Botsford, Associate Justice, was born in
4. The Court's Departments
The Supreme Judicial Court has a number of departments, including:
a. Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth
The duties of this office include responsibility for the court's appellate caseload; requests for advisory opinions from the Governor, the Governor's Council, or either branch of the Legislature; questions of law certified by federal courts or certain other courts; original entries involving the discipline of clerks of courts and judges; attending sessions of the full court; maintaining the docket of each related item; processing all pertinent filings; and serving as the court's liaison to the parties or their counsel.b. Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County
This office is responsible for the single justice caseload of the Supreme Judicial Court and serves as a liaison between the parties and the single justice. The clerk maintains the docket for the single justice matters, schedules sessions of single justice and bar discipline hearings before the single justice, maintains the bar docket for matters filed by the Board of Bar Overseers pertaining to attorney discipline, receives and maintains applications for admission to the bar of the Commonwealth; administers oaths for newly qualified applicants to the bar of the Commonwealth and other jurisdictions; issues certificates of good standing; processes applications of student practitioners; processes applications from attorneys in foreign jurisdictions and processes applications to become Foreign Legal Consultants.c. Reporter of Decisions
The Reporter of Decisions is appointed by the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court. The Reporter and his staff prepare all court opinions for publication with suitable head notes, tables of cases, and indexes.d. Law Clerks
Law Clerks work for an assigned Justice. They conduct legal research on cases scheduled for argument. Following argument, when a case has been assigned to their justice, the law clerks will conduct additional legal research and assist with the initial drafting process.e. Public Information Office
The Public Information Office is the central communications office for media and public inquiries and requests concerning the Massachusetts judicial branch. The Office publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Court Compass, and the annual reports for the judicial branch. In its community relations role, the Public Information Office conducts a variety of outreach programs throughout the year, such as the Judicial Youth Corps. In its media relations role, the Public Information Office offers support to judges and court personnel in dealing with the media.f. The Division of Archives and Records Preservation
The Division of Archives and Records Preservation locates, identifies, preserves, and prepares for use all historically important court records in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Massachusetts court records form an unbroken sequence from 1630 to the present and offer a unique opportunity to trace the development of American law and legal institutions from the beginnings of English settlement in the New World.The original mandate - to develop a judicial archive of pre-1860 and historically significant court records - has largely been realized in the creation of the Judicial Archives located at the State Archives at Columbia Point. The Division's responsibilities have expanded to include working with scholars, researchers and requests for information, assisting court clerks with the implementation of the Supreme Judicial Court rule relative to records retention, advising the courts on the management and preservation of permanent records, and the conservation treatment of damaged material, including both documents and bound volumes.
The conservation section is responsible for the conservation and preservation of all historically significant Massachusetts court records. Full paper conservation treatment, including dry cleaning, aqueous washing, neutralization (deacidification), repair, lining or mylar encapsulation is undertaken. In addition, the conservation section is equipped to handle book repair and rebinding and the preparation of both custom made and standardized boxes and enclosures. The conservation section is committed to preventative conservation procedures for both older and modern court records, urging the adoption and implementation of acid-free storage enclosures, proper methods of housing, storage and handling, environmental control and disaster contingency planning.
In addition, the division is responsible for the implementation and maintenance of a state-wide computerized records management program. This program currently tracks nearly 120,000 boxes of records in five facilities. The system can search by court, records series, keyword, date or other tag and the location of specific requested files can be retrieved. It is also queried regularly to identify boxes of records which have passed their assigned destruction date so that they can be removed from off-site storage and destroyed.