N.D. Sup. Ct.: A Century of Advances: Ch. II.I. Ten Year Tenure

II. Meandering into the Twentieth Century
. . .
I. Ten Year Tenure

The 1889 Constitution set six-year terms for Supreme Court justices.⁽²⁰⁸⁾ One effort to extend the terms to ten years was rejected by the people in 1908.⁽²⁰⁹⁾ The 1929 legislature, however, proposed an amendment to extend all Supreme Court terms to ten years beginning with the 1934 general election.⁽²¹⁰⁾ At the 1930 primary election, the people approved the ten-year terms that remain today.⁽²¹¹⁾ The longer terms significantly aid judicial independence.

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Footnotes:

208. See N.D. Const. art. IV, § 91 (repealed 1976).

209. See Lounsberry, supra note 1, at 447.

210. See 1929 N.D. Laws ch. 98, at 115.

211. See 1931 N.D. Laws art. 46, at 578; see also N.D. Const. art. VI, § 7.