Washington Supreme Court


The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the judiciary of the US state of Washington. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and eight Justices. Members of the Court are elected to six-year terms. Justices must retire at the end of the calendar year in which they reach the age of 75, per the Washington State Constitution.
The Chief Justice is chosen by secret ballot by the Justices to serve a 4-year term. The current Chief Justice is Debra L. Stephens who was elected by her peers on November 6, 2019. Chief Justice Debra Stephens was sworn in on January 5, 2020, and succeeds Mary Fairhurst, who retired for medical reasons.
Prior to January 1997 the post of Chief Justice was held for a 2-year term by a justice who was one of the Justices with 2 years left in their term, was the most senior in years of service of that cohort, and had not previously served as Chief Justice. The last Chief Justice under the rotation system, Barbara Durham was the architect of the present internal election system, and was the first to be elected under the new procedure, serving until her resignation in 1999.
The court convenes in the Temple of Justice, a historic building on the Washington State Capitol campus in Olympia, Washington.
The persuasiveness of the Court's decisions reaches far beyond Washington's borders. A Supreme Court of California study published in 2007 found that the Washington Supreme Court's decisions were the second most widely followed by the appellate courts of all other US states in the period from 1940 to 2005.

Selection

Members of the Court are elected to six-year terms, with three justices elected in each even-numbered year in a nonpartisan election with a top-two primary. Judicial elections in Washington, including for the Supreme Court, are frequently uncontested and incumbents typically win reelection. The last time a justice lost reelection was in 2010 when Charlies Wiggins defeated Richard B. Sanders, who had previously defeated Rosselle Pekelis in 1995. When Chief Justice Keith M. Callow lost to Charles W. Johnson in 1990, it was the first time in 40 years an incumbent had lost.
The only required qualification for justices is that they are admitted to practice law in Washington.
In case of a vacancy, the Governor of Washington may appoint a replacement who must stand in the next election to fill the unexpired term. Five of the current nine judges were originally appointed.

Current justices

Seat #TitleNameJoined the CourtCurrent term endsAge 75Appointed byLegal education
7Chief Justice2040Christine GregoireGonzaga University School of Law
4Associate Chief Justice2026–Seattle University School of Law
5Justice2027–Gonzaga University School of Law
2Justice2025–University of North Carolina School of Law
8Justice2038Christine GregoireUniversity of California, Berkeley School of Law
9Justice2030–USC Gould School of Law
1Justice2032Jay InsleeNotre Dame Law School
3Justice2043Jay InsleeUniversity of Washington School of Law
6JusticeApril 13, 20202040Jay InsleeSeattle University School of Law

History

The early history of the Washington Supreme Court has been described as follows:
Candidates for election were originally nominated at party conventions, but in 1907 it became a direct nonpartisan election.
Carolyn R. Dimmick was the first woman to sit on the court, taking her seat in 1981. Barbara Durham was the first female chief justice, selected in 1995. Charles Z. Smith, appointed 1988, was the first African American to serve on the court. Mary Yu became the first LGBT, Asian American, and Latina member in 2014. A majority of justices has been female since 2013. After the appointment of Helen Whitener in 2020, the court was called "arguably the most diverse court, state or federal, in American history", with various incumbents reflecting the state's white, black, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American, LGBT, immigrant, Jewish, and disabled populations.

Notable cases