State of Justice: May Vacancies and Elections Updates
Vacancies
Georgia Supreme Court shortlist announced
To fill the vacancy left by Chief Justice Michael Boggs’ retirement, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) must select a nominee provided to him by the state’s judicial nominating commission. In 2017, Gov. Nathan Deal (R) appointed Boggs to the state supreme court. Boggs became chief justice in 2022 and served until his retirement. The judicial nominating commission released its recommendations for the vacancy. The recommended candidates are U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Epps, Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Benjamin Land, Georgia Court of Appeals Judge John “Trea” Pipkin III, and Atlanta Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker.
Epps started serving as a magistrate judge in 2013. Prior to becoming a magistrate, Epps worked in private practice litigation focused on insurance litigation. Land worked as a private practice attorney, working on complex civil litigation. In 2018, Deal appointed Land to the superior court bench. Land served on the superior court until his appointment to the court of appeals in 2022. Pipkin worked as an assistant district attorney before serving as the solicitor-general for Henry County. In 2018, Deal appointed Land to the superior court, where he remained until his elevation to the court of appeals in 2020. Whitaker worked as a deputy district attorney before working as a senior assistant attorney general in the criminal justice division for the Georgia Department of Law. In 2017, Whitaker was appointed to the superior court of Fulton County.
Kansas Supreme Court applicants announced
After receiving an ALS diagnosis, Justice Evelyn Wilson stepped down from the bench effective July 4. Fifteen people applied for Wilson’s seat. The Supreme Court Nominating Commission released the 15 applicants’ names as part of Kansas’ transparent judicial nominations process. The applicants are Meryl Brianne Carver-Allmond, district Judge Carl Adrian Folson III, district Judge Amy Jane Hanley, Randall Lee Hodgkinson, district Judge Krishnan Christopher Jayaram, district Judge Laura Ellen Johnson-McNish, Brant Mitchell Laue, district Judge Kathleen Lynch, Brian Lee Mizer, district Judge Cheryl Ann Rios, Anthony Rupp, Krystal Lynn Volkins, Larkin Evans Walsh, Kristen Diane Wheeler, and district Judge Robert James Wonnell. Of the applicants, Carver-Allmond, Judge Folsom, and Hodgkinson all bring significant experience as public defenders, which would bring professional diversity to the court.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer makes an appointment to Michigan Supreme Court
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) appointed Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Noah Hood to serve on the Michigan Supreme Court. Hood will fill the seat being vacated by Justice Elizabeth Clement. Clement, a conservative, would have been required to run for election in November 2026 to serve another term on the court. Instead, Clement stepped down from the bench at the end of April after being named the next president of the National Center for State Courts. Hood, a Detroit native, previously served as a judge on the Wayne County Superior Court and the Michigan Court of Appeals. Prior to his judicial service, Hood worked as an assistant U.S. attorney and in private practice. He must run for election to a full term in November of 2026 to retain his seat on the court.
Gov. Kay Ivey announces replacement for Alabama Supreme Court justice who resigned to run for attorney general
On May 19,2025, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell informed Gov. Kay Ivey (R) that he would resign from the state’s highest court that day to seek the Republican nomination for Alabama Attorney General in 2026. Mitchell is the author of a controversial opinion released by the court in 2024, which held that fertilized human embryos are people. The ruling upended access to in vitro fertilization for hundreds of families in Alabama. At the same time, state legislators scrambled to pass a law to exempt IVF clinics from the implications of the court’s ruling. In his letter of resignation, Mitchell noted opinions he had authored as a supreme court justice that “confirm the truth that life begins at conception” and “keep wokeness and DEI out of our courts and the legal profession.” Mitchell attributed his resignation to his desire to seek an office that would allow him to help further the Trump administration’s national agenda in Alabama, writing, “President Trump is moving boldly to restore the United States Constitution — and we must ensure that his agenda takes root not only in Washington, but also in the states. I feel called to play a larger role in that effort in Alabama.” In accordance with state campaign finance laws, Mitchell will be permitted to transfer leftover funds from his most recent campaign for reelection to the supreme court in 2024 – a total of over $640,000 – to the account of his campaign for attorney general.
The day after Mitchell resigned from the court, Ivey announced she would appoint Alabama Court of Civil Appeals Judge Bill Lewis to fill Mitchell’s seat. Lewis is the fourth Black justice to join the Alabama Supreme Court, though he is the first Black Republican jurist in that court’s history. Ivey appointed Lewis to the Court of Civil Appeals in February 2024. He was previously the presiding judge of the Elmore County Circuit Court. Before becoming a judge, he was a partner at his own firm, where he practiced criminal defense and civil and family law. He was an assistant prosecutor in Elmore County before entering private practice. Lewis was sworn in on the day his appointment was announced and must run in a partisan election in 2026 to continue serving on the court.
Elections
Flathead County judge enters race for open seat on the Montana Supreme Court
Flathead County District Court Judge Amy Eddy announced she will run for a seat on the Montana Supreme Court being vacated due to the retirement of Justice Beth Baker, who announced earlier this year that she would not seek a third term on the court. Eddy became a judge in 2015 when she was appointed to Montana’s 11th Judicial District bench by then-Gov. Steve Bullock (D). She ran in a retention election to fill the remainder of the term in 2016 and ran for full terms in 2018 and 2024. Since 2017, she has served as Montana’s first Asbestos Claims Court judge, where she helps facilitate resolutions for asbestos claims. Prior to becoming a judge, she worked in private practice on personal and workplace injury matters, class actions, and other plaintiff-side civil litigation. As a law student, she clerked for the Honorable Leif Erickson, a federal magistrate judge. Eddy’s colleague on the Flathead County District Court bench, Judge Dan Wilson, has also announced that he will run for the seat. Wilson was a candidate for a seat on the Montana Supreme Court in 2024, when now-Justice Katherine Bidegaray defeated him. Justices of the Montana Supreme Court are chosen in nonpartisan elections. Candidates run in primary elections, and the top two candidates advance to the general election. The winner will serve an eight-year term on the court.
Justice Allison Riggs sworn into the court over six months after her election
The months-long legal battle between Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs and Republican court of appeals challenger Judge Jefferson Griffin finally ended after a federal judge ordered the certification of Riggs’ election. After that decision, Griffin conceded, and his and other North Carolina conservatives’ attempts to steal the state supreme court election were no longer being pushed and funded by nationwide conservative interests. After Riggs won by just 732 votes following multiple recounts by state and county boards of elections, Griffin attempted to throw out over 65,000 votes from predominantly Democratic areas in the state for the state supreme court election only. If Griffin had been successful, he would have set the precedent that it is okay to try to rewrite the rules for voters and disenfranchise them all because a candidate’s party lost. Riggs was sworn in by Justice Anita Earls, the only other Democratic justice serving on the court.
Lawmaker announces plans to challenge incumbent North Carolina Supreme Court justice
Longtime North Carolina Rep. Sarah Stevens, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, has announced she will challenge an incumbent justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2026. Stevens has represented the 90th District in the North Carolina House of Representatives since 2009. She served as the House speaker pro tempore from 2017 until earlier this year and is currently the chair of the House judiciary and election law committees. She has maintained a private law practice for 30 years, practicing family law, traffic tickets, DUIs, criminal defense, bankruptcy, and personal injury matters. Stevens will challenge incumbent Justice Anita Earls, the only member of the court whose seat will be on the ballot in 2026. Earls, who was elected to an eight-year term on the court in 2018, has already announced that she intends to seek a second term on the court.
Earls worked as a civil rights attorney prior to her time on the bench, serving as the founding executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, the director of advocacy at the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights, the director of the voting rights project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Bill Clinton. North Carolina’s supreme court justices are elected in partisan elections. Partisan primary elections will occur on March 3, 2026, with the top vote-earner in each primary advancing to the general election on November 3, 2026. The winner will be sworn into an eight-year term on January 1, 2027.
Arkansas justices skirt state constitutional provision by running for each other’s seats
Two sitting justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court have each announced they will run for the other’s seat in 2026. The justices, each of whom was appointed to the court in December of 2024 by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), are prohibited from running for their own seats due to a provision in the Arkansas Constitution that precludes any statewide elected official who was appointed to their office by the governor from running for a full term for that office. The language is intended to prevent officials appointed by the governor from remaining in their positions for more than two years.
Sanders appointed Justice Cody Hiland to fill a vacancy in Position 3 created when Justice Courtney Hudson ran for the court’s Position 2 seat to extend her tenure on the court. Hiland had previously been the justice serving in the Position 2 seat after Sanders appointed him to fill a vacancy in that seat in 2023 following the death of Justice Robin Wynne. Hiland had been due to leave the court at the end of 2024 before Sanders appointed him to fill the new vacancy created by Justice Hudson’s move to Position 2. Sanders appointed the state’s solicitor general, Nicholas Bronni, to fill a vacancy in the court’s Place 6 seat created by Justice Karen Baker’s elevation to chief justice. Hiland will seek Bronni’s Place 6 seat, and Bronni will seek Hiland’s Place 3 seat. Both justices’ names will appear on ballots with their title of Supreme Court Justice due to a new law passed by the Arkansas legislature on May 5 that allows for appointed justices to appear on ballots with their title.
Nonpartisan primary elections will take place for each seat in the spring of 2026, and the top two candidates will advance to the general election in November 2026.
Court of Appeals judge to challenge conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice in spring 2026 election
Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Chris Taylor has announced she will run to unseat conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley in next spring’s election. Taylor has been a Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge since running unopposed for a seat on the court in 2023 and previously served as a Dane County Circuit Court judge after being appointed to a seat on the court by Gov. Tony Evers (D) in 2020. Before becoming a judge, she served nine years as a member of the Wisconsin General Assembly, representing parts of Madison and several other municipalities as a Democrat from 2013 to 2020. She was an attorney, legal director, and policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin prior to entering public service.
Incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, whose first term on the court will expire on July 31, 2026, announced last month that she will seek a second term next year. Bradley was appointed to the court in 2015 by Gov. Scott Walker (R) and won election to a full term in 2016. She was previously a judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and the Milwaukee County Circuit Court and worked in private practice before becoming a judge. The 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, in which liberal candidate Susan Crawford soundly defeated conservative candidate Brad Schimel for an open seat on the court, recently became the most expensive state supreme court election in history with over $100 million spent on the race. With liberals holding a 4-3 majority on the court, the race will not affect the court’s ideological balance, though the liberal majority will expand to 5-2 if Taylor defeats Bradley.
