three-room building it shared with the Indiana legislature, the Court held its first session in Corydon on May 5, 1817. Under the state constitution of 1816, the governor appointed justices with the state senate's "advice and consent" for a term of seven years. In December 1816, Jonathan Jennings, Indiana's first governor, nominated John Johnson of Vincennes in Knox County; James Scott of Charlestown in Clark County; and Jesse Holman of Aurora in Dearborn County, to serve as the first panel of judges on the Indiana Supreme Court. Johnson became the Court's first chief justice. When Johnson died in 1817, Jennings named Isaac Blackford to replace him. Blackford became the second chief justice of the Court and was the longest serving justice in the Court's history, serving 36 years, 3 months, and 24 days. Blackford recorded all of the Court's early decisions in a multivolume work titled Blackford's Reports that served for many years as a foundational text on the interpretation of state laws. In 1824, the Supreme Court relocated to Indianapolis with the rest of the state's government. Initially the Court shared space on the second floor of the Marion County Courthouse, before moving to the third Indiana Statehouse. In 1865 the Court was given its own building on lot number one in Indianapolis, where it remained until 1888, moving to its present location in the fifth Indiana Statehouse. , the Court occupies the entire north wing of the third floor of the Indiana Statehouse. In the early history of the state, the court relied heavily on English common law for precedence. This continued to be the case until the passage of the Practice Act in the late 1840s which changed the system for pleadings and caused many earlier precedents to become invalid. In 1851, the Supreme Court was reorganized under the new state constitution. The position of justice was changed from an appointed position to an elected one. Judicial terms were changed to six years and the Court's size was set to a minimum of three members and not more than five. The Court's judges quickly became overwhelmed by an ever-increasing caseload. In 1853, the minimum was increased to four members and in 1872, it was increased to five. The Court has remained at a minimum of five justices since that time. In 1867, the general assembly transferred all the law books in the Indiana State Library to the