Selection
The court is composed of seven elected justices, each of whom serves a six-year term after winning a nonpartisan election. Justices, like other Oregon state court judges, must be United States citizens, Oregon residents for at least three years, and lawyers admitted to practice in the state of Oregon. The newest justice receives the smallest office (nicknamed “the broom closet”) and is responsible for opening the door when a conference is interrupted. When a state court judge retires, resigns, or dies before completing a term, the Governor may appoint another qualified person to the position. To retain that position, the appointed person must run for election for a full six-year term at the next general election.
On occasion, a judge will leave office at the end of a term, in which case a general election determines their replacement. If the Supreme Court needs an additional judge on a temporary basis due to illness, an unfilled position, or a justice is disqualified from sitting on a case due to a conflict of interest, the court can appoint a senior judge to serve as a judge pro tempore. Senior judges are all former, qualified judges (a minimum of 12 years on the bench) that have retired from a state court. Only former Supreme Court justices, elected Oregon circuit court judges, or elected Oregon Court of Appeals judges can be assigned to temporary service on the Supreme Court.
Read more about this topic: Oregon Supreme Court
Famous quotes containing the word selection:
“It is the highest and most legitimate pride of an Englishman to have the letters M.P. written after his name. No selection from the alphabet, no doctorship, no fellowship, be it of ever so learned or royal a society, no knightship,—not though it be of the Garter,—confers so fair an honour.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“Judge Ginsburg’s selection should be a model—chosen on merit and not ideology, despite some naysaying, with little advance publicity. Her treatment could begin to overturn a terrible precedent: that is, that the most terrifying sentence among the accomplished in America has become, “Honey—the White House is on the phone.””
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The books for young people say a great deal about the selection of Friends; it is because they really have nothing to say about Friends. They mean associates and confidants merely.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)