State of Justice: August Vacancies and Elections Updates
Vacancies
Alaska Supreme Court headed for female majority with retirement of chief justice
The Alaska Supreme Court is poised to have a female majority – a first in the state’s history – when Chief Justice Peter J. Massen retires in January 2025. Following the court’s announcement that Massen would retire, the Alaska Judicial Council sought applications from Alaska attorneys interested in succeeding Massen on the court. All seven candidates who applied to replace Massen are women. The council will survey and interview the candidates and will select a slate of finalists from which Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) will choose Massen’s successor. With the court currently comprising three men and two women, its makeup will flip to three women and two men regardless of Dunleavy’s choice. The seven candidates are Kate Demarest and Laura Wolff, both senior attorneys in the Alaska Attorney General’s Office; Kate Vogel, a First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska; Aimee Anderson Oravec, general counsel to electric utility supplier Doyon Utilities; Alaska Superior Court Judge Josie Garton; and private practitioners Magaret O. Rogers and Holly C. Wells. The finalist will become just the fifth woman to join Alaska’s highest court and will serve a 10-year term.
Moore appoints Prince George’s County Circuit Court judge to fill vacancy on Maryland Supreme Court
On July 25, the office of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) announced that he had appointed Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Peter Killough to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court of Maryland left by the retirement of Judge Michele Hotten, who reached the state’s mandatory retirement age of 70 on April 21. Killough has been a circuit court judge since 2018. He previously worked in the office of the Maryland Attorney General, first as a counsel advocating for insurance consumers in the People’s Insurance Counsel Division and later investigating and prosecuting allegations of fraud, abuse, and neglect of vulnerable adults as director of the Maryland Medicaid Fraud Unit. He also worked in the Office of the General Counsel for the Ford Motor Company. Killough’s term will expire on December 31, 2026, and he will be required to stand for retention election in November 2026 to continue serving on the court.
Chief Justice of Nebraska Supreme Court announces retirement
Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Heavican sent a letter to Gov. Jim Pillen (R) on August 21 informing Pillen that he will retire from the state’s highest court on October 31. Heavican has served as the court’s chief justice since 2006. Pillen will select Heavican’s replacement with the assistance of Nebraska’s Judicial Nominating Commission. Nebraska has six judicial districts, with each district represented on the Supreme Court by one associate justice. The six associate justices join the court’s chief justice to make up the seven-member court. The state’s Judicial Nominating Commission has separate committees for each seat, including the chief judgeship. The Judicial Nominating Commission’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Committee will ask interested attorneys in Nebraska to apply for consideration to fill the vacancy. The commission will consider the applicants and will forward a list of finalists to Pillen, who will choose Heavican’s replacement. The person selected to fill the vacancy will become the court’s chief justice for the duration of their service on the court and will serve at least three years on the court before standing for retention election to a full six-year term.
Replacement for South Carolina Supreme Court’s chief justice improves court’s gender diversity, eliminates racial diversity
South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice John Beatty retired at the conclusion of the court’s term on July 31 after reaching the state’s mandatory retirement age of 72 in April. The court selected Justice John Kittredge to serve as its next chief justice and the state legislature selected Court of Appeals Judge Letitia Verdin to fill the vacancy left by Beatty’s retirement. Verdin’s term will expire on July 31, 2034. Verdin is the third woman to join South Carolina’s highest court, which had been the nation’s only all-male state supreme court prior to her appointment. But while Verdin’s appointment brings much-needed gender diversity to the court, Beatty had been only the second Black justice to serve on the court, and the first since Reconstruction. With Beatty being replaced by Verdin, South Carolina – a state whose population is 28% Black – will now join 17 other states with all-white supreme courts.
Elections
Louisiana Supreme Court election canceled after two of three candidates ruled ineligible
On August 20, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that two of three candidates who filed to run for a seat on the Supreme Court representing the state’s newly redrawn and history-making 2nd Judicial District are ineligible to seek the office. Following an appeal of a lower court ruling, the court found that Louisiana Housing Corporation Chief of Staff Leslie Ricard Chambers and Second Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Marcus Hunter are ineligible to seek election to the court because both candidates failed to prove they filed income taxes in one or more of the past five years as required by state law. The ruling leaves First Circuit Court of Appeal Chief Judge John Michael Guidry as the sole eligible candidate.
The decision partially affirmed and partially reversed an August 8 ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal that found Chambers was ineligible to run for the seat but left Hunter on the ballot. That ruling overturned a district court judge’s decision from July 30 that threw out the effort to disqualify the two judges. The original challenge was brought by a woman whose daughter is a chief administrative counsel in Guidry’s office and who was represented in the case by a law firm that donated $2,500 to Guidry’s campaign in May. Due to the supreme court’s decision, both the primary election, scheduled for November 5, and general election, scheduled for December 7, were canceled.
Guidry will join the court on January 1, 2025, and will serve a 10-year term. The 2nd district was redrawn after a state law was enacted in May to add a second majority-Black district to the court at the urging of five of the court’s seven members. Despite Louisiana having the second-highest Black population of all states at 32%, the court has had only three Black justices, none of whom have served at the same time. Currently, the court’s only Black justice is Piper Griffin, who joined the court in 2021 and represents the 7th District. Guidry will join Griffin as the fourth Black justice to serve on the Louisiana Supreme Court, the first time two Black justices will sit on the court at the same time.
Delegates to Michigan political party conventions nominate state Supreme Court candidates
At their respective state party conventions on August 24, delegates of the Michigan Democratic Party and the Michigan GOP nominated candidates for two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court. Under Michigan’s unique judicial selection method, the state’s registered political parties select one candidate to run for each seat up for election on the Michigan Supreme Court. Despite being selected by their respective political party, candidates appear on the nonpartisan judicial section of the ballot, with sitting justices receiving an incumbency designation.
Democrats nominated incumbent Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden to run for the remainder of a term she was appointed to fill in 2022 by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). Democrats also nominated Kim Thomas, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Law, to run for an open seat on the court created by the upcoming retirement of Justice David Viviano. Both Bolden and Thomas were unopposed.
Republicans nominated Branch County Circuit Judge William O’Grady to challenge Bolden for the partial term and State Rep. Andrew Fink to take on Thomas for the full term. O’Grady defeated Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Mark Boonstra, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Former Republican Attorney General candidate Andrew DePerno – who is under indictment for election tampering – had also sought the nomination, but withdrew his candidacy on the eve of the convention and threw his support behind Boonstra. Fink defeated Detroit litigator Alexandria Taylor for the nomination to run for the full term on the court. Third parties have until September 6 to inform Michigan’s Secretary of State of their intention to run a candidate for either seat.
Voters retain Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Dwight Tarwater
Voters retained Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Dwight Tarwater in the state’s August 1 judicial retention election, with nearly 73% of voters choosing to retain Tarwater. Gov. Bill Lee (R) appointed Tarwater to the court in 2023 following the retirement of former Justice Sharon Lee. Tarwater was a partner at two law firms and served as general counsel to the office of former Gov. Bill Haslam (R) before joining the court. His full term will begin on September 1, 2024, and will expire on September 1, 2032. Unofficial election results showed that fewer than 14% of registered Tennessee voters participated in the election.
