Supreme Court of Cascadia
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The Supreme Court of Cascadia is the highest court, constitutional tribunal, civil court, and trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the national judiciary of the Republic of Cascadia. It has ultimate original jurisdiction over all national court cases if a matter is raised to the court relating to the Constitution or laws of Cascadia, and over town court cases that involve a point of Cascadian constitutional or national law; and it also has inferred appellate jurisdiction over cases settled in local tribunals or courts. The Oregon Organic Act additionally granted the Supreme Court with original jurisdiction over all matters, local and national, occurring in the Cascadian territory of Oregon. The court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction, unless the President uses their authority to refer a passed law to the Supreme Court to evaluate its constitutionality before the President decides to sign it.
The court was first established by Cascadia's first constitution as the "State Court of Cascadia", which was both headed by and purely consisted of a directly-elected Chief Judge, the sole judge of the court, serving for a renewable two-month term. Two elections for Chief Judge were held under this system, before the constitution was amended to establish a Supreme Court with 3 judges appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the House, and with the continued support of three-fifths of the population in monthly retention referendums. This system has remained in place following the ratification of the National Constitution, in which the Supreme Court is described in Article 5. The court consists of three justices: the chief justice of the Cascadia and two associate justices. Justices have lifetime tenure, meaning they remain on the court until they die, retire, resign, fail to meet three-fifths in a retention referendum, or are impeached and removed from office. When a vacancy occurs, the president, with the advice and consent of the House of Representatives, appoints a new justice. Each justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before the court. When in the majority, the chief justice decides who writes the opinion of the court; otherwise, the most senior justice in the majority assigns the task of writing the opinion.
The court meets in the Temple of Justice in Olympia. The current justices of the Supreme Court are Beamz30 (Chief since June 19, 2023), SayerQT (since June 18, 2023), and Vacant (since TBD, 2023).
Notable rulings
Current justices
| Justice / Residence | Appointed by | HCV | Approval | Start date | Succeeded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
(Chief) WrestlingWithGod Chaeronea, Cascadia |
Milgorn123 | 12–0 | 81.8% | February 25, 2023 | xBest_Name_Everx |
| Aurivia Kalispell, Cascadia |
Milgorn123 | 7–5 | 72.7% | February 25, 2023 | WrestlingWithGod | |
| Beamz30 Port McNeill, Cascadia |
AghastBlock | 13–0 | 85.5% | April 27, 2023 | Jo_Star | |
Timeline of judges of the Supreme Court
Main article: List of judges of the Supreme Court of Cascadia
| Elected | Judge | Nominator | HCV | % | Judge | Nominator | HCV | % | Judge | Nominator | HCV | % | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 17, 2022 | Bubba_Tea | 35.3% | pre-creation | ||||||||||||
| November 20, 2022 | xBest_Name_Everx | 70.4% | |||||||||||||
| Date | Chief | Associate #1 | Associate #2 | ||||||||||||
| December 1, 2022 | xBest_Name_Everx | ViolentVampire | 11–1 | wrestlingwithgod | ViolentVampire | 12–0 | Arathorn52 | ViolentVampire | 14–0 | ||||||
| December 18, 2022 | 77.8% | 69.8% | 73.0% | ||||||||||||
| January 15, 2022 | 71.4% | 71.4% | |||||||||||||