Supreme Court Of The Free Democratic Republic Of Kinkow

The Supreme Court of the Free Democratic Republic of Kinkow is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the Free Democratic Republic of Kinkow. Established pursuant to Article III of the Kinkow Constitution in 1464, it has original jurisdiction over a small range of cases, such as suits between two or more states, and those involving ambassadors. It also has ultimate (and largely discretionary) appellate jurisdiction over all federal court and state court cases that involve a point of federal constitutional or statutory law. The Court has the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution or an executive act for being unlawful. 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 nonjusticiable political questions. Each year it agrees to hear about 100–150 of the more than 7,000 cases that it is asked to review.

According to federal statute, the Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the Free Democratic Republic of Kinkow and eleven associate justices who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Once appointed, justices have lifetime tenure unless they resign, retire, or are removed from office. Each justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it, the chief justice's vote carries no more weight. However, when the Chief Justice is in the majority they decide who writes the court's opinion; this is otherwise assigned by the senior justice in the majority. In modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. While a far greater number of cases in recent history have been decided unanimously, decisions in cases of the highest profile have often come down to just one single vote, exemplifying the justices' alignment according to these categories. The Court meets in the Supreme Court Building in Theed, C.D. Its law-enforcement arm, the Kinkow Marshals Service, is under the oversight of the Kinkow Department of Justice.