The Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas was the

court of last resort A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

for legal matters in the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

from the Republic's independence from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in 1836 until its annexation by the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

in 1846. The current

Supreme Court of Texas The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of ...

was established that year.

Organization of the Court

The Court was established by the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

of 1836, which created the Supreme Court and such inferior courts as the Texas Congress might from time to time establish. The constitution also mandated that the Republic be divided into judicial districts, and that the district judges would serve as the associate judges on the Supreme Court, along with a Chief Justice. The judges were elected by Congress for a term of four years. The district judges rode the circuit in their district during the spring and fall, leaving only the summer and winter for the judges to sit as the Supreme Court.

Jurisdiction

The Court had unlimited

appellate jurisdiction A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

. In the first statute establishing the district courts, Congress set $300 as the minimum amount in controversy for the appeal of a decision from the district court to the Supreme Court. In 1841 the Court declared that limit

unconstitutional Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

in '' Morton v. Gordon and Alley'', stating that all final judgments of the district courts were able to be appealed to the Supreme Court. The same district court enabling act did not provide for appeal to the Supreme Court of criminal matters, which the Court resolved in '' Republic v. Smith'', stating that the constitution gave jurisdiction to the Court over all criminal appeals.

Operation of the Court

On December 15, 1836, the

Texas Congress : ''For the current Texas legislative body, see Texas Legislature.'' The Congress of the Republic of Texas was the national legislature of the Republic of Texas established by the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836. It was a bicameral l ...

passed the implementing statute establishing the courts of Texas, and elected the chief justice and four district judges the next day. The four district judges covered 22 counties and were ''

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by right ...

'' members of the Supreme Court. The court was to meet for one session a year, beginning on the first Monday in December, and required a majority of the judges to be present. The opinions of the court are collected in a private

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, '' Dallam's Decisions'', in only one volume.

Justices of the Court

Chief Justices

The Court had a Chief Justice and originally four district judges who served as associate judges. This was expanded to five in 1838 and seven in 1840. The first Chief Justice was

James Collinsworth James Thompson Collinsworth (1802 – July 11, 1838) was an American-born Texian lawyer and political figure in early history of the Republic of Texas. Early life Collinsworth was born in 1802 Davidson County, Tennessee. His father, Edward Collin ...

, who was an ally of

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...

, the president-elect of the new republic. On Collinsworth's death, Houston appointed John Birdsall to the post. When

Mirabeau B. Lamar Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar (August 16, 1798 – December 25, 1859) was an attorney born in Georgia, who became a Texas politician, poet, diplomat, and soldier. He was a leading Texas political figure during the Texas Republic era. He was elect ...

became president, Congress refused to confirm Birdsall and elected

Thomas Jefferson Rusk Thomas Jefferson Rusk (December 5, 1803July 29, 1857) was an early political and military leader of the Republic of Texas, serving as its first Secretary of War as well as a general at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was later a US politician and ...

instead. In 1840, Rusk resigned and was replaced by John Hemphill, who served until the annexation of Texas.. The election in Congress was contested, with

John Scott John Scott may refer to: Academics * John Scott (1639–1695), English clergyman and devotional writer * John Witherspoon Scott (1800–1892), American minister, college president, and father of First Lady Caroline Harrison * John Work Scott (180 ...

, former

Solicitor General of North Carolina A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

; James Webb, former U.S. District judge and

Attorney General of Texas The Texas attorney general is the chief legal officer
of the

; and Hemphill all in the running for Chief Justice. Hemphill has been compared to

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...

in laying down the legal foundation of Texas law, especially in the area of

land titles Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, a ...

marital property Matrimonial regimes, or marital property systems, are systems of property ownership between spouses providing for the creation or absence of a marital estate and if created, what properties are included in that estate, how and by whom it is manag ...

, and

homestead exemption The homestead exemption is a legal regime to protect the value of the homes of residents from property taxes, creditors, and circumstances that arise from the death of the homeowner's spouse. Such laws are found in the statutes or the constitution ...

District judges

The original four district court judges elected by Congress were Shelby Corzine, Benjamin Cromwell Franklin,

Robert McAlpin Williamson Robert McAlpin Williamson (1804? – December 22, 1859) was a Republic of Texas Supreme Court Justice, state lawmaker and Texas Ranger. Williamson County, Texas is named for him. He is the first white person documented playing the banjo. Early ...

, and James W. Robinson. Due to delays in the Supreme Court sitting in session, these four judges (along with the first two chief justices) never sat with the Supreme Court.

Succession of seats

Sessions

1837 and 1839

No session was held in 1837, probably because a majority of the judges were not present. Two weeks after the Court was supposed to have met, Congress passed a statute which would impose a $1,000 fine on a judge who did not appear for a session. A short time later, Congress eliminated the scheduled 1838 session when it moved the annual date to the second Monday in January. In the meantime, Collinsworth died and Houston replaced him with Birdsall until Congress could meet and elect a new Chief Justice. Rusk was elected, but did not receive word of his election until after the 1839 session had been scheduled to occur and been canceled for lack of a Chief Justice.

1840

The first session in which the Texas Supreme Court met was the January 1840 session, in Austin. The Court consisted of Chief Justice Rusk, and District Judges Shelby, W.J. Jones, Mills, and Hemphill. The clerk was W. Fairfax Gray. The court disposed of 49 cases on its docket, but issued only 18 opinions. Thirteen cases were decided without opinion; the rest were continued to the following term. The court issued what appear to be the first ''

writ of mandamus (; ) is a judicial remedy in the form of an order from a court to any government, subordinate court, corporation, or public authority, to do (or forbear from doing) some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do (or refrain from ...

'' and first ''

writ of habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

'' in Texas.

1841

The January 1841 session was attended by Chief Justice Hemphill and District Judges Baylor, Hutchinson, Terrell, Scurry, and Hansford. Gray was the clerk. The District Judges from the First and Second Districts were not in attendance.

1842

The January 1842 session was attended by Chief Justice Hemphill and District Judges Morris, Baylor, Hutchinson, Ochiltree, Jack, and Mills. Thomas Green was the clerk. The District Judge from the Second District did not attend.

1843

The June 1843 session was attended by Chief Justice Hemphill and District Judges Morris, Baylor, Ochiltree, and Jack. Green was the clerk. The District Judges from the Second, Fourth, and Seventh Districts did not attend.

1844

The June 1844 session was attended by Chief Justice Hemphill and District Judges Morris, W.J. Jones, Baylor, W.E. Jones, Ochiltree, and Jack. Green was the clerk. The District Judge from the Seventh District did not attend.

1845

The December 1845 session was the last session of the Court. It was attended by Chief Justice Hemphill and District Judges J. B. Jones, W. J. Jones, Baylor, W. E. Jones, Wheeler, and Norton. Green was the clerk. The District Judge from the seventh district did not attend.Raines, at 99.

References

Footnotes

Notes

External links

The Texas Supreme Court Historical Society
{{Texas History Navbox

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Texas state courts

Judiciary of the Republic of Texas Defunct state courts of the United States 1836 establishments in the Republic of Texas 1840s disestablishments in Texas Courts and tribunals established in 1836 Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1846