The state Supreme Court has split evenly for the first time since Justice Joan Orie Melvin was suspended in the wake of criminal charges.

The high court issued its 3-3 order without comment July 12 in the case of Hetherington v. Rogers, a dispute out of Schuylkill County over the removal of eight members of a local school board, stemming from the way the board handled the appointment of a new district superintendent.