Chief Justice of Liberia

Article 54(c) of the Constitution stipulates that the Chief Justice is appointed by the President of Liberia and confirmed by the Senate. Per Article 68, eligibility for the position of Chief Justice requires that the candidate:

• be a citizen of Liberia;
• be of good moral character;
• have been a counselor of the Supreme Court Bar for at least five years.

Article 71 states that the Chief Justice "shall hold their offices during good behavior." According to Article 72(b), the Chief Justice must retire from office upon reaching the age of 70, though he may remain on the Court long enough to render judgment or perform any judicial duties regarding matters he began addressing before reaching that age.

In addition to acting as head judge on the Supreme Court and managing all subordinate courts, the Constitution provides several duties to the Chief Justice. In the case of impeachment of the President or Vice President, Article 43 mandates that the Chief Justice preside over the trial in the Senate. Additionally, Article 53(a) requires the Chief Justice to swear in the President in front of a joint session of the Legislature.

The Chief Justice may be removed from office upon impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate. Article 71 of the Constitution stipulates that the Chief Justice may only be removed in the event of "misconduct, gross breach of duty, inability to perform the functions of their office, or conviction in a court of law for treason, bribery or other infamous crimes." In the event of an impeachment trial of the Chief Justice in the Senate, the President of the Senate presides over the proceedings.

Only one Chief Justice, Chea Cheapoo, has been removed in this manner.

Source: [1]

Status

No.	Portrait	Chief Justice (Lifespan)	Tenure	Nominated by President
1		Samuel Benedict (1792–1854)	1847–1854	Joseph Jenkins Roberts
2		John Day (1797–1859)	1854–1859
3		Boston Jenkins Drayton (1821–1865)	1861–1864	Stephen Allen Benson
4		Edward James Roye (1815–1872)	1865–1868	Daniel Bashiel Warner
5		C. L. Parsons	1869–1894	James Spriggs Payne
6		Zacharia B. Roberts	1895–1910	Joseph James Cheeseman
7		James A. Toliver	1911–1913	Arthur Barclay
8		J. J. Dossen (1866–1924)	1913–1924	Daniel Edward Howard
9		F. E. R. Johnson	1924–1933	Charles D. B. King
10		Louis Arthur Grimes (1883–1948)	1933–1948	Edwin Barclay
11		H. Nimine Russell	1949–1956	William Tubman
12		A. Dash Wilson (1898–?)	1958–1970
13		James A. A. Pierre (1908–1980)[lower-alpha 1]	1971–1980
–		Emmanuel Gbalazeh (1934–2009)	1980–1986	People's Redemption Council
14		James N. Nagbe[lower-alpha 2]	1986–1987	Samuel Doe
15		Chea Cheapoo (1942–2020)[lower-alpha 3]	1987
16		Emmanuel Gbalazeh (1934–2009)[lower-alpha 4]	1988–1990
–		James G. Bull	1992–1996	Amos Sawyer
		Frances Johnson-Morris	1996–1997	Ruth Perry
17		Gloria Musu-Scott[lower-alpha 5]	1997–2003	Charles Taylor
–		Henry Reed Cooper	2003–2006	National Transitional Government
18		Johnnie Lewis (1946–2015)	2006–2012	Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
19		Francis Korkpor	2013–present

• Dossen, J. J., Supreme Court reports: Cases argued and determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of the Republic of Liberia, January, 1861-January, 1907, Volume 1.

• Text of the 1986 Constitution