The most recent woman to be appointed to the high tribunal is Maria Filomena Singh, a former justice of the Court of Appeals of the Philippines on May 18, 2022.
As of March 20, 2024[update], there are fourteen associate justices on the Supreme Court, with the most recent appointment being that of Maria Filomena Singh on May 18, 2022.
7(1), Article VIII) The members of the Court are appointed by the President from a list of at least 3 nominees prepared by the Judicial and Bar Council.
Most prominently, the Court is called upon to exercise the power of judicial review of presidential or legislative actions.
The Court is also tasked with deciding administrative cases involving members and employees of the judiciary and of lawyers belonging to the Philippine Bar.
Each Justice carries one vote on the Court which they exercise whether when sitting in Division, or in the full complement of 15 (or "en banc").
However, the Constitution prescribes instances whereby a case must be decided en banc, such as in declaring a law as unconstitutional or when a judicial precedent is overturned.
Many important opinions are analyzed in law schools and are well-remembered long after the Justice had left the Court.
For example, several of the opinions of Associate Justice Jose P. Laurel were crucial in the development of Philippine jurisprudence and are widely read and quoted nearly 70 years after they had been written.
On several occasions, views expressed in a dissenting or concurring opinion were adopted by the Supreme Court in later years.
Justice Gregorio Perfecto, whose staunch libertarian views were out of sync with the Cold War era, wrote over 140 dissenting opinions in just 4 years.
There are no official ramifications as to this ranking, although the order determines the seating arrangement on the bench and is duly considered in all matters of protocol.
President Aquino had sought to reorganize the Court by obtaining the resignation of most of the Associate Justices who had been appointed by Ferdinand Marcos, and filling those vacancies with her own choices.
The most recent death of a former justice was that of Antonio Nachura, who died on March 13, 2022, aged 80 years, 273 days.