Belmont is a town in Belknap County,New Hampshire,United States. The population was 7,314 at the 2020 census.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court is the supreme court of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and sole appellate court of the state. The Supreme Court is seated in the state capital,Concord. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices appointed by the Governor and Executive Council to serve during "good behavior" until retirement or the age of seventy. The senior member of the Court is able to specially assign lower-court judges,as well as retired justices,to fill vacancies on the Court.
Capital punishment was abolished in 2019 in New Hampshire for persons convicted of capital murder. It remains a legal penalty for crimes committed prior to May 30,2019.
Claremont School District v Governor of New Hampshire is an important legal case in New Hampshire. In the mid-1990s,the city of Claremont,New Hampshire started a process against the State of New Hampshire,challenging the constitutionality of the New Hampshire allocation of school funding.
The State of New Hampshire has a republican form of government modeled after the Government of the United States,with three branches:the executive,consisting of the Governor of New Hampshire and the other elected constitutional officers;the legislative,called the New Hampshire General Court,which includes the Senate and the House of Representatives;and the judicial,consisting of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire and lower courts.
The Constitution of the State of New Hampshire is the fundamental law of the State of New Hampshire,with which all statute laws must comply. The constitution became effective June 2,1784,when it replaced the state's constitution of 1776.
James Adams Weston was a civil engineer,banker,and an American politician from Manchester,New Hampshire,who served as mayor of Manchester for several terms and was the 33rd governor of New Hampshire.
Nathaniel Head,also known as Natt Head,was an American construction material supplier and Republican politician from Hooksett,New Hampshire. He served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and New Hampshire Senate,served as Adjutant General of New Hampshire,and was the 45th Governor of New Hampshire.
The murder of Michael Briggs occurred on October 16,2006,in Manchester,New Hampshire,United States. Briggs,a police officer,was shot while on duty and was transported to the hospital,where he died of his injuries. The suspect,Michael "Stix" Addison,fled New Hampshire,prompting a manhunt by police. Fifteen hours after the shooting,Addison was arrested in Dorchester,Massachusetts. He was charged by Boston Police with being a fugitive from justice. He waived domestic extradition and was transported back to New Hampshire.
Lesbian,gay,bisexual,transgender,and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of New Hampshire enjoy the same rights as non-LGBTQ people,with most advances in LGBT rights occurring in the state within the past two decades. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in New Hampshire,and the state began offering same-sex couples the option of forming a civil union on January 1,2008. Civil unions offered most of the same protections as marriages with respect to state law,but not the federal benefits of marriage. Same-sex marriage in New Hampshire has been legally allowed since January 1,2010,and one year later New Hampshire's civil unions expired,with all such unions converted to marriages. New Hampshire law has also protected against discrimination based on sexual orientation since 1998 and gender identity since 2018. Additionally,a conversion therapy ban on minors became effective in the state in January 2019. In effect since January 1,2024,the archaic common-law "gay panic defence" was formally abolished;by legislation implemented within August 2023.
Colin Van Ostern is an American businessman and politician who served on the New Hampshire Executive Council from 2013 to 2017,where he represented the state's second district. He is a member of the Democratic Party,and was the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Hampshire in 2016. He was a candidate for a two-year term as New Hampshire Secretary of State in the New Hampshire General Court's 2018 election,which he lost to incumbent Bill Gardner. He ran in the 2024 Democratic primary to succeed Annie Kuster in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district;he was defeated by Maggie Goodlander.
Christopher Thomas Sununu is an American politician and engineer who has served since 2017 as the 82nd governor of New Hampshire.
Dan Feltes is an American lawyer,a member of the Democratic Party,and represented the 15th district of the New Hampshire Senate from 2014 until 2020. At the age of 39,Feltes became the youngest Majority Leader in the history of the New Hampshire Senate. Feltes was characterized by Steve Shurtleff,the former Speaker of the New Hampshire House,as the most effective consensus builder at the State House in two decades. He was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2020,he now teaches at Iowa Law school,and is a practicing attorney at Iowa Legal Aid.
The 2018 New Hampshire gubernatorial election took place on November 6,2018,to elect the governor of New Hampshire. Incumbent Republican governor Chris Sununu won re-election to a second term,defeating former state senator Molly Kelly. Sununu was the first incumbent Republican to win reelection as governor since Steve Merrill was reelected in 1994.
The 2020 New Hampshire gubernatorial election was held on November 3,2020,to elect the governor of New Hampshire. Incumbent Republican governor Chris Sununu was re-elected to a third two-year term in office,defeating his opponent Dan Feltes,the Majority Leader of the Senate. Nine governors ran for re-election in this cycle and all nine were re-elected. Sununu's win marked the first time since 1986 that a Republican was elected to a third term as governor,in which year his father,John H. Sununu was reelected for his third and final term. The elder Sununu chose not to seek reelection in 1988,instead becoming George H. W. Bush's chief of staff in 1989.
Abortion in New Hampshire is legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy as of January 1,2022,when a new law went into effect. Prior to this,the gestational limit was unclear. Abortion was criminalized in the state by 1900. In June 2003,the state passed a parental notification law,repealing it four years later before passing a new one in 2011. New Hampshire then passed a law in 2012 which required minors to wait 48 hours after requesting an abortion but no longer required parental consent. New Hampshire law regarding abortion has been heard before the US Supreme Court in the case Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in 2006. The number of abortion clinics in New Hampshire has declined over the years,with 18 in 1982,16 in 1992 and four in 2014. In 2010,there were three publicly funded abortions in the state;all three were federally funded. There are both active abortion rights and anti-abortion rights activists in the state.
The 2018 New Hampshire Executive Council elections were held on November 6,2018 to elect all five members of the Executive Council of New Hampshire. The party primaries were held on September 11.
The 2022 New Hampshire gubernatorial election was held on November 8,2022,to elect the governor of New Hampshire. Incumbent Republican Governor Chris Sununu won election to a fourth term,defeating Democratic nominee Tom Sherman.
Cinde Warmington is an American attorney,politician,and former lobbyist. A Democrat,Warmington was elected to the Executive Council of New Hampshire in November 2020,assuming office on January 6,2021.
Richard B. McNamara is a retired American judge who served on the Superior Court of Merrimack County,New Hampshire,for eleven years,after being selected as the state's first business court judge. He was recruited out of law school to serve as a prosecutor in the New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General,where he handled murder cases very early in his career. He has authored leading New Hampshire law treatises on criminal and civil law topics. He was president of the New Hampshire Bar Association,and worked as a commercial litigator for 30 years at one law firm before his appointment as a judge to New Hampshire's specialized Business and Commercial Dispute Docket.
