University of Arkansas at Little Rock: UALR Bowen Law Repository

Baker, James E.

English

The Importance of Building Fires: Lessons Learned as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

Parness, Jeffrey A.

Dangers in De Facto Parenthood

Howell, Cassie R.

Constitutional Law—Sixth Amendment—Braving Confrontation: Arkansas’s Progressive Position Regarding Criminal Defendants’ Confrontation Rights at Sentencing

May, Nancy Bellhouse

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process 
Volume 14 Issue 1 Article 1 
2013 
The First and the Last 
Nancy Bellhouse May 
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 Part of the Law and Politics Commons, and the Legal History Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Nancy Bellhouse May, The First and the Last, 14 J. APP. PRAC. & PROCESS v (2013). 
Available at: https://lawrepository.ualr.edu/appellatepracticeprocess/vol14/iss1/1 
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THE JOURNAL OF
APPELLATE PRACTICE
AND PROCESS
FOREWORD
THE FIRST AND THE LAST
Thinking recently that the story of the first appellate court in
the United States was bound to be interesting, I set out to find it.
But I never got there.
I learned instead that there is some uncertainty about which
of the state supreme courts has the longest history. The Supreme
Court of Virginia, for example, "is one of the oldest continuous
judicial bodies in the United States."' Its antecedents include
both the Supreme Court of Appeals, which first sat in 1779, and
the Quarter Court, established by the House of Burgesses in the
1620s.2 The Supreme Court of Connecticut's earliest ancestor
appears to have been the Court of Assistants, which was
established in 1665.' And the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,
which traces its history back to 1684,4 characterizes itself as "the
oldest appellate court in the nation."' The Supreme Judicial
Court of Massachusetts was established in 1692 as the Superior
Court of Judicature,6 and is now "believed to be the oldest
1. See Office of the Executive Secretary, Supreme Court of Virginia, Virginia's
Judicial System, The Supreme Court of Virginia, http://www.courts.state.va.us/courts/scv/
scvinfo.pdf (accessed Oct. 15, 2013; copy on file with Journal of Appellate Practice and
Process).
2. Id.
3. See State of Connecticut, Judicial Branch, History of the Courts, http://www.jud.ct
.gov/ystday/history.html (noting that the history of the appellate courts in Connecticut
runs from the Court of Assistants through the Superior Court and eventually to the
"Supreme Court of Errors" established in 1784 as the "highest appellate tribunal of the
state" and absorbed into the new judicial branch established by the 1818 constitution)
(accessed Oct. 15, 2013; copy on file with Journal of Appellate Practice and Process).
4. See Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania-
Overview, http://www.pacourts.us/learn?q=supreme (accessed Oct.15, 2013; copy on file
with Journal of Appellate Practice and Process).
5. Id.
6. See Massachusetts Judicial Branch, Massachusetts Judicial System, The Supreme
THE JOURNAL OF APPELLATE PRACTICE AND PROCESS Vol. 14, No. 1 (Spring 2013)
THE JOURNAL OF APPELLATE PRACTICE AND PROCESS
appellate court in continuous existence in the Western
Hemisphere."' And a fifth possible contender for the title of
oldest, the Supreme Court of Maryland, is descended from an
appellate tribunal active in the early eighteenth century.'
The historical record may not show us, then, which of the
state supreme courts has an absolute claim to first place. But we
know at least which of the high courts in the original thirteen
states was formed most recently: Delaware established a separate
supreme court only in 1951.9
THE ISSUE
We have in this issue a reflection on the ways in which
President Obama's background as a professor of constitutional
law might be influencing his approach to the selection of federal
judges, an insider's report on the drawbacks of lobbying among
the members of multi-judge appellate courts, a dialogue about
oral argument, a comparison of two anti-retention efforts-one
successful, one thwarted-mounted against members of the Iowa
Supreme Court, an examination of the English approach to
appellate review of criminal sentencing, and an overview of the
California appellate courts' experiment with tentative oral
opinions. All are interesting, all are timely, and all address
matters likely to affect the future of all our appellate courts-no
matter which among them has roots that extend most deeply into
the past.
NBM
Little Rock
October 15, 2013
Judicial Court, http://www.mass.gov/courts/sjc/supreme-judicial-court.html (accessed Oct.
15, 2013; copy on file with Journal of Appellate Practice and Process).
7. Id.
8. See Maryland State Archives, A Court of Appeals Time Capsule, http://
msa.maryland.gov/ecp/45/00029/html/intro.html (noting that '[t]he Court of Appeals of
Maryland is probably the oldest appellate court in the United States," and that "its origin
goes back more than a half century before" the current body was "created by the State
Constitution of 1776") (accessed Oct. 15, 2013; copy on file with Journal of Appellate
Practice and Process).
9. See Delaware State Courts, History of the Delaware Supreme Court, http://
courts.delaware.gov/supreme/history.stm (noting that "[t]he highest appellate authority
prior to the creation of the separate Supreme Court consisted of those judges who did not
participate in the original litigation in the lower courts," and who "would hear the appeal
en Banc") (accessed Oct. 15, 2013; copy on file with Journal of Appellate Practice and
Process).
vi


The First and the Last

Beiner, Theresa M.

The Con Law Professor with Judicial Appointment Power

Aldisert, Ruggero J.

A Nonagenarian Discusses Life as a Senior Circuit Judge

Flannery, Michael T.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law
Bowen Law Repository: Scholarship & Archives
Faculty Scholarship
2013
"Rethinking" Embryo Disposition Upon Divorce
Michael T. Flannery
University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, mxflannery@ualr.edu
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Part of the Family Law Commons, and the Science and Technology Commons
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Bowen Law Repository: Scholarship & Archives. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty
Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Bowen Law Repository: Scholarship & Archives. For more information, please contact
mmserfass@ualr.edu.
Recommended Citation
Michael T. Flannery, "Rethinking" Embryo Disposition Upon Divorce, 29 J. Contemp. Health L. & Pol'y 233 (2013)





















































Rethinking  Embryo Disposition Upon Divorce

Entrikin, J. Lyn

The Right of Privacy in Arkansas: A Progressive State

Cox, Nikki L.

Constitutional Law—School Integration Reform—A Call for Desegregation Policies that Are More than Skin Deep

Fletcher, S. Kate

Constitutional Law—First Amendment—Social Media Rams the Tinker Schoolhouse Gate: A New Approach for Online Student Speech

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