Supreme Judicial Court to celebrate its first 325 years

SALEM, Mass. (AP) - Members of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court are planning to gather in Salem to celebrate the court’s first 325 years.

Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants and Justice David Lowy will speak at the morning event Wednesday at the Essex County Superior Court.

Robert Brink, executive director of the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society, will also speak.

The court - originally called the Superior Court of Judicature- sat for the first time on Jan. 3, 1693. It is the state’s top court and the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere.

After the adoption of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, the name of the court was changed to the Supreme Judicial Court. The seven-member court operates under the oldest, still functioning written constitution in the world.