supreme court

noun, often capitalized S&C

Definition of supreme court

1 : the highest judicial tribunal in a political unit (such as a nation or state)

2 : a court of original jurisdiction in New York state subordinate to a final court of appeals

Examples of supreme court in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The island’s justice secretary, Wanda Vazquez, was sworn in as governor at the supreme court in San Juan. — Reuters, The Mercury News, "Vazquez sworn in as new governor of Puerto Rico," 7 Aug. 2019 State supreme courts in Connecticut, Delaware, and Washington have struck down capital statutes in recent years, while state and local prosecutors asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to do the same earlier this month. — Matt Ford, The New Republic, "We Are All Executioners Now," 25 July 2019 But in October 2018, the state’s supreme court ruled that the telescope’s second construction permit was valid, opening the way for work to restart on Mauna Kea. — Alexandra Witze, Scientific American, "Controversial Telescope Set to Begin Construction in Hawaii," 16 July 2019 She was finally exonerated by Italy's supreme court in 2015. — CBS News, "Amanda Knox "traumatized" by media firestorm surrounding her return to Italy," 14 June 2019 The supreme court will soon decide whether to allow indebted states to reduce civil servants’ salaries and hours. — The Economist, "One Brazilian state stands out as a model of efficiency," 9 Aug. 2019 Yet, there are new institutional challenges to that dominant view: the supreme court constitution bench decisions in the privacy rights and LGBTQ cases undermine the uniformist agenda in remarkable ways. — Salman Khurshid, Quartz India, "Rumours, suspicions, fears: What Indian Muslims have battled since Independence," 26 July 2019 The supreme court has been considering since 2017 whether to issue such a ruling. — The Economist, "Jair Bolsonaro has given up on his anti-graft crusade," 26 July 2019 Nationwide, the report said, white men make up 30% of the population but 56% of the justices on state supreme courts. — Bob Egelko, SFChronicle.com, "White men hold most state supreme court seats, with California as notable exception, report says," 23 July 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'supreme court.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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More Definitions for supreme court

supreme court

noun

English Language Learners Definition of supreme court

: the highest court of law in a country or U.S. state

See the full definition for supreme court in the English Language Learners Dictionary

supreme court

noun, often capitalized

Kids Definition of supreme court

: the highest court of law in the United States or in many of its states

supreme court

noun

su·preme court

Legal Definition of supreme court

1 : the highest court in a nation or state specifically, capitalized S&C : the highest court in the judicial branch of the U.S. government that has original jurisdiction over controversies involving ambassadors or other ministers or consuls but whose main activity is as the court of last resort exercising appellate jurisdiction over cases involving federal law

2 capitalized S&C : a court of original jurisdiction in New York

Note: The court of last resort in New York is the Court of Appeals.