The Constitution of the Klamath Tribes
Article V - Judicial Branch
Section I: The Judicial power of the Klamath Tribes shall be vested in the independent Klamath Tribes Judiciary, which shall consist of the Klamath Tribes Supreme Court, Klamath Tribal Court, Klamath Juvenile Court, Klamath Peacemaker Court and such lower courts that the Klamath Tribes may from time to time establish.

Section II: The judicial power of the Klamath Judiciary shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution, and the laws, ordinances and customs of the Klamath Tribes. The Tribal Courts shall be empowered to exercise all judicial authority of the Klamath Tribes. Said authority shall include but not be limited to enforcement of Tribal law and the power to review and rule on the constitutionality of Tribal legislative and executive actions under this Constitution.

Section III: The Klamath Tribal Courts shall be courts of record and shall consist of Native American Judges only, and shall be elected by the General Council. No person will serve in the capacity of Tribal Judge under the age of 30 years. General Council shall then designate one (1) Native American Judge as Chief Judge who shall serve in that capacity for the duration of his/her term. Native American Judges shall be elected at the general election following the first election of judges.

Section IV: The Supreme Court shall consist of three (3) Visiting Justices appointed by the Chief Judge to hear the case, with one (1) Justice appointed by the Chief Judge as Chief Justice.

Section V: The appellate power of the Klamath Tribes shall be vested in the Klamath Tribes Supreme Court, which shall have jurisdiction to hear all appeals from the Klamath Courts. The Klamath Tribes Supreme Court decision shall be final.

Section VI: The Tribal Court shall consist of one (1) Native American Chief Judge, and such Native American Associate Judges and staff as are designated by Tribal Ordinance. The Ordinance shall set forth the terms of office and qualifications for Tribal Court Chief Judge, Associate Judges and Staff

Section VII: The Chief Judge shall, each year, designate an Associate Judge as Judge of the Klamath Tribes Juvenile Court and shall oversee the Klamath Tribes Peacemaker Court. Section VIII: Judges and Justices of the Klamath Judiciary shall receive compensation for their services as established by Tribal Ordinance. This compensation shall not be diminished by any amount or increased by any amount or increased beyond reasonable cost of living allowance during their term of office.

Section IX: This Article will be effective upon the approval of the General Council and the presentation of and the General Council approval of the required ordinances.

ARTICLE VI
 
Please note: this presentation of the Constitution of the Klamath Tribes was created using Optical Character Recognition (comonly known as OCR), which may result in occasional errors in spelling and punctuation.