Supreme Court of Zamastan

Supreme Court of Zamastan
Established	September 27, 1804 (1804-09-27)
Location	Tofino, Zian
Composition method	Presidential nomination with Senate confirmation
Authorized by	Constitution of Zamastan
Judge term length	Life tenure
Number of positions	9 (by statute)
Chief Justice of Zamastan
Currently	Roosevelt Dunn

The Supreme Court of Zamastan (SCOZ) is the highest court in Zamastan. It has ultimate (and largely discretionary) appellate jurisdiction over all federal and state court cases that involve a point of federal law, and original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party". 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. The Court may decide cases having political overtones, but it has ruled that it does not have power to decide non-justiciable political questions.

Established by Article III of the Constitution, the composition and procedures of the Supreme Court were initially established by the 1st Congress through the Judiciary Act of 1804. The Court consists of the chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice has lifetime tenure, meaning they remain on the Court until they resign, retire, die, or are removed from office. When a vacancy occurs, the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoints a new justice. Each justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it. When in 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 Supreme Court Building in Tofino, Zian.

Composition

Size of the court

Article III of the Constitution sets neither the size of the Supreme Court nor any specific positions on it (though existence of the office of chief justice is tacitly acknowledged in Article I, Section 3, Clause 6). Instead, these powers are entrusted to Congress.

Appointment and confirmation

The president to nominate and, with the confirmation (advice and consent) of the Senate, to appoint public officials, including justices of the Supreme Court. This clause is one example of the system of checks and balances inherent in the Constitution. The president has the plenary power to nominate, while the Senate possesses the plenary power to reject or confirm the nominee. The Constitution sets no qualifications for service as a justice, thus a president may nominate anyone to serve, and the Senate may not set any qualifications or otherwise limit who the president can choose.

Membership

Current justices

The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice, currently Roosevelt Dunn, and eight associate justices. Among the current members of the Court, Benn Burgess is the longest-serving justice, with a tenure of 15,738 days (43 years, 32 days) as of November 24, 2024; the most recent justice to join the court is Abdallah Gilmour, whose tenure began on May 12, 2019.

• Roosevelt Dunn (Chief Justice); Joined September 13th, 1999 (25 years, 72 days)
• Benn Burgess; Joined October 23rd, 1981 (43 years, 32 days)
• Humphrey Bullock; Joined April 3rd, 1984 (40 years, 235 days)
• Atticus Dougherty; Joined April 18th, 1989 (35 years, 220 days)
• Kacper Hogg; Joined January 26th, 1990 (34 years, 303 days)
• Shona French; Joined November 23rd, 2001 (23 years, 1 day)
• Julie Beaumont; Joined February 5th, 2007 (17 years, 293 days)
• Isaiah Mccormack; Joined October 2nd, 2015 (9 years, 53 days)
• Abdallah Gilmour; Joined May 12th, 2019 (5 years, 196 days)

Facilities

The present Supreme Court building as viewed from the front