State Supreme Court - Statistics

Statistics

Term length
6 years 15 states
8 years 11 states
10 years 13 states
12 years 5 states
Life tenure 4 states
Others 2 states

7 years in Maine and 14 in New York.

Number of members
Five justices 16 states
Seven justices 29 states
Nine justices 5 states

Texas and Oklahoma have dual supreme courts. In Texas, both have nine justices. In Oklahoma the Supreme Court has nine justices and the Court of criminal appeals has five (assimilated to nine in the above table).

Mode of selection
Partisan election 7 states
Non-partisan election 15 states
Missouri Plan 16 states
Appointment by governor with collegial body consent 12 states
Elected by state legislature 2 states

A non-partisan election does not mean that the judges run and are selected with no regard to political beliefs. In many cases "non-partisan election" merely means the prospective judges' parties are not printed on the ballot.

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