Supreme Court of New Jersey

The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging the validity of state laws under the state constitution; has sole authority to prescribe and amend court rules and regulate the practice of law; and is the arbiter and overseer of the decennial legislative redistricting. One of its former members, William J. Brennan, Jr., became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.It has existed in three different forms under the three different state constitutions since the independence of the state in 1776. As currently constituted, the court replaced the prior New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, which had been the highest court created under the Constitution of 1844. Now, the Supreme Court hears appeals from the Appellate Division and, on rare occasions, directly by order of the Court from other cases within the judicial and administrative system.Previous compositionsUntil the Constitution of 1947, the Supreme Court was an intermediate court. Under the two previous New Jersey state constitutions (1776 and 1844), the phrase "Supreme Court" referred to a lower court, similar to the New York Supreme Court. Both the "supreme court" and the actual highest court were composed in a radically different manner from that of the current supreme court or its inferior courts.