[2] The court presently is made up of seven justices,[3] each elected by a majority vote of both houses of the General Assembly for a term of twelve years.
[6] State law requires justices, like all Virginia jurists, to retire no later than twenty days after the commencement of the next regular session of the General Assembly following their seventy-third birthday.
Ex officio membership ended on December 24, 1788, when the Supreme Court of Appeals became a separate body with five judges.
Federal military authorities allowed voters statewide to elect delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868.
[35] On June 3, 1869, during Congressional Reconstruction, Major General John Schofield (who governed Virginia as Military District No.
1 and also led efforts to allow separate votes on the proposed Constitution and anti-Confederate provisions), dismissed all three elected judges because a new federal law required removal of officials in Texas and Virginia with any record of service to the Confederacy.
Those three judges served (and issued binding rulings) until the new state Constitution came into effect and legislators elected replacements.
[38] It perpetuated this staggering by providing that any new judge elected to fill a vacancy would serve only the unexpired portion of his predecessor's term.
[39] In 1906, the General Assembly re-elected each of the five incumbent judges, whose terms were all due to expire the following January 1, to fill the newly staggered seats.
The Constitution of 1971 eliminated the staggering of seats by providing that any new judge elected to fill a vacancy serve a full twelve-year term.
[112] Consequently, any line of succession between a specific justice of the current court and a judge elected before 1895 necessarily would be arbitrary.