## Facts

- The Governor of New Hampshire and the Executive Council filed an original petition in the New Hampshire Supreme Court seeking a declaration that RSA 490:1 was unconstitutional.
- RSA 490:1 treated the Chief Justice role as an “administrative” position and required rotation of the chief justiceship by seniority in successive five-year terms.
- The Attorney General opposed the petition.
- The Senate President and House Speaker appeared as amici defending the statute’s constitutionality.
- All sitting members of the New Hampshire Supreme Court recused, and a special panel was appointed to decide the petition.
- The dispute centered on whether a statute could impose fixed terms and rotation for the court’s Chief Justice given constitutional protections for judicial office and tenure “during good behavior.”

## Issues

1. Whether the legislature may, by statute, redefine the office of Chief Justice as an administrative assignment with a fixed five-year term that rotates by seniority.
2. Whether RSA 490:1 impermissibly alters a constitutionally protected judicial office and its tenure, violating separation of powers and judicial independence.

## Decision

- The special panel exercised original jurisdiction and granted relief to the petitioners.
- The court held RSA 490:1 unconstitutional.
- The court concluded the legislature could not, by ordinary statute, convert the chief justiceship into a term-limited, rotating administrative position inconsistent with the constitution’s treatment of judicial office and tenure.

## Legal Principles

- The constitution, not ordinary legislation, defines the essential attributes of constitutionally protected judicial offices, including tenure during good behavior.
- The legislature may regulate court administration, but it may not abolish, materially restructure, or change the tenure incidents of a constitutional judicial office through statutory reclassification.
- Statutory mechanisms that allow legislative control over judicial leadership in a manner inconsistent with constitutional tenure protections violate separation of powers and threaten judicial independence.

## Conclusion

The court invalidated RSA 490:1 because it attempted to recharacterize and term-limit the chief justiceship by statute, an alteration the legislature lacked authority to impose on a constitutional judicial office protected by tenure and separation-of-powers limits.


In re Petition of Governor & Executive Council, 151 N.H. 1, 846 A.2d 1148 (N.H. 2004)