A. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

• Jurisdiction: United States

A. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Court of Appeals is New York’s highest court. Although for historical reasons it lacks the word “supreme” in its title,¹ it is in every sense New York’s court of last resort. Only if the case poses a federal question is there any possibility of further direct review after the Court of Appeals has heard the case, and in that instance it is only the United States Supreme Court which has any further appellate jurisdiction in the matter.²

The “Court of Appeals” was established by the New York Constitution of 1846.³ At that time it succeeded to the jurisdiction of the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors. That court, not unlike the old English House of Lords, was composed of the President and entire membership of the State Senate, the Chancellor, and the Justices of the Supreme Court.⁴ The present seven-judge bench took shape under 1869 constitutional changes...