The territory will take a small step toward both greater territorial autonomy and fuller integration into the U.S. court system next week when U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeal Chief Judge Theodore McKee personally delivers that court’s five-year review on V.I. Supreme Court operations.
The court announced Friday McKee will personally deliver the review at a 9:30 a.m. ceremony June 19 at the Supreme Court’s premises in Crown Bay, St. Thomas. The public can view the event live by logging on to the court’s website at http://www.visupremecourt.org/, under the "Media Services" link.
The V.I. Supreme Court, the most recent addition to the nation’s high state and territorial courts, was made possible in 1984 when Congress amended the Revised Organic Act of 1954, the federal act that establishes local government institutions and the territory’s legal relationship with the United States.
V.I. legislation proposed in 2004 and enacted in 2006 established the high court. Before the V.I. Supreme Court was established, appeals from V.I. Superior Court decisions were heard by the U.S. District Court for the Virgin Islands, then by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. After it was established, the Third Circuit had review by writ of certiorari. Under the Organic Act, after 15 years the territorial Supreme Court will have the same relationship to federal courts and to the U.S. Supreme Court that state supreme courts have. The change would mean the V.I. Supreme Court would be the final arbiter of most cases, and there would no longer be review by the Third Circuit.
Once the Supreme Court is established, the Organic Act sets up a process where the Judicial Council of the Third Circuit shall submit reports every five years "as to whether it has developed sufficient institutional traditions to justify direct review by the Supreme Court of the United States from all such final decisions." That direct review would remove the 3rd Circuit from the process.
V.I. Supreme Court Chief Justice Rhys Hodge told the Senate during 2011 budget hearings that he plans to ask the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to remove the mandate during that first review.
“I’m optimistic the Third Circuit review will be favorable,” Hodge said in July 2011.
