The John Adams Courthouse is an historic nineteenth century building and one of Boston's architectural gems, located close to the Massachusetts Statehouse in downtown Boston. Originally completed in 1894 and named the Suffolk County Courthouse, the building has hosted various trial courts over the years.  The building was refurbished to its original nineteenth-century grandeur in 2002 and renamed after John Adams, native son, famous patriot, author of the Massachusetts Constitution, and second president of the United States.

Listed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places, the John Adams Courthouse reflects the history and import of the institutions it shelters. It houses the state's highest court, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and the Social Law Library, the oldest law library in the United States.

The Supreme Judicial Court, originally called the Superior Court of Judicature, was established in 1692 and is the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere. After the adoption of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, the name of the Court was changed to the Supreme Judicial Court. The Supreme Judicial Court operates under the oldest, still functioning written constitution in the world, and is the Commonwealth’s highest appellate court. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court is a court of general appellate jurisdiction. It has twenty-five statutory judges. Like most intermediate appellate courts, the Appeals Court almost always sits in panels of three judges.

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