Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court

(a) Jurisdiction. The Supreme Court shall have authority to review all justiciable controversies and proceedings, regardless of subject matter or amount involved. (b) Additional Authority. Its authority also includes jurisdiction of original proceedings for mandamus, prohibition, injunction, and similar remedies to protect its appellate jurisdiction. The Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction of all appeals arising from judgments, final decrees, or final orders of the Superior Court in criminal cases and in civil cases and proceedings. The Supreme Court has original and appellate jurisdiction over attorney disciplinary matters including but not limited to admissions, qualifications, and standards of practice; and supervisory jurisdiction over all inferior courts in Guam and may make and promulgate rules governing the practice and procedure in the courts. This does not include administrative authority otherwise specifically prescribed in § 5102 of this Act. 1985 SOURCE: CCP § 62, as amended by P.L. 12-085:3 (Jan. 16, 1974) and P.L. 13-187:19 (Sept. 2, 1976); and modified. Subsection (b) repealed and reenacted by P.L. 24-139:29 (Feb. 21, 1998). Subsection (b) amended by P.L. 27-031:9 (Oct. 31, 2003). COURT DECISIONS: Pangelinan v. Gutierrez, 2000 Guam 11 ¶ 8 (“We find that Bill 495 [designated as P.L. 24- 139] was pocket vetoed and that the Legislature’s subsequent actions did not serve to ratify Bill 495.”), aff’d by Gutierrez v. Pangelinan, 276 F.3d 539 (9th Cir. 2002), cert. den. 537 U.S. 825 (Oct. 7, 2002). 1985 COMMENT: This Section gives to the Supreme Court, as permitted by the Omnibus Territories Act of 1984, the appellate power over the Superior Court. Since other laws, including 8 GCA Ch 130, Title 15 GCA and sections in this Title all provide for appeals from specific non-final judgments, orders, etc., the Law Revision Commission believed that repetition here of the local of the specific laws on appeals was unnecessary and could cause trouble if the other laws were to be amended to include new areas of appeal and this section forgotten.