Tag: State courts
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Chief justice of Maine Supreme Court resigns
Chief justice Leigh Ingalls Saufley of the Maine State Supreme Court resigned April 14. She stepped down to take a new position as the dean of the University of Maine School of Law, her alma mater. Saufley first joined the court in 1997, following her appointment by independent then-governor Angus King. In 2001, Saufley became…
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Iowa Governor appoints fourth supreme court justice
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) appointed attorney Matthew McDermott to the Iowa Supreme Court on April 3, 2020. McDermott succeeded Acting Chief Justice David Wiggins, who retired on March 13, 2020. McDermott was the governor’s fourth nominee to the seven-member supreme court. At the time of his appointment to the state supreme court, McDermott practiced…
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Washington Gov. Inslee selects third appointment to state supreme court
Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) appointed Judge G. Helen Whitener to the Washington Supreme Court on April 13, 2020. Whitener succeeded Justice Charles Wiggins, who retired in March. Whitener is Gov. Inslee’s third nominee to the nine-member supreme court. Whitener has been a judge on the Pierce County Superior Court in Washington since 2015. From…
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Five Oklahoma justices serving on courts of last resort face retention elections
Oklahoma is one of two states with two courts of last resort. The Oklahoma Supreme Court is the court of last resort in the state for civil matters while the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is the court of last resort for criminal matters. The Oklahoma Supreme Court is composed of nine justices serving six-year…
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Jill Karofsky defeats incumbent Daniel Kelly in Wisconsin State Supreme Court election
Jill Karofsky defeated Daniel Kelly in the general election for a ten-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. As of 7:35 p.m. on April 13, Karofsky had received 53.2% of the vote to Kelly’s 46.8% with 73% of precincts reporting. Although the race was officially nonpartisan, Kelly is a member of the court’s conservative majority,…
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Delaware extends state court closure through May 14
On April 13, 2020, Delaware Chief Judge Collins Seitz Jr. extended court closures in the state through May 14, except for Delaware’s three Justice of the Peace courts. The three 24-hour courts will remain open to accept bail payments for all courts and Justice of the Peace Court emergency criminal and civil filings. Ballotpedia is…
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Changes to rent, mortgage, eviction, and foreclosure policies in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
State and local governments have implemented a range of policies affecting evictions and foreclosures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some governors have issued executive orders affecting evictions and foreclosures. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D), for example, issued executive orders suspending evictions and foreclosures for a set period of…
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Wisconsin’s absentee ballot rejection rate averaged 1.14% for spring elections since 2012
Wisconsin voters went to the polls April 7 for the state’s annual spring election. This year, in addition to presidential primaries, a seat on the state Supreme Court and a ballot measure proposing an expansion of rights for victims of crime were on the ballot. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the deadline for voters to…
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Rhode Island closes courts to non-emergency matters through May 17
On April 8, 2020, the Rhode Island state judiciary ordered that all courts would close to non-emergency matters through May 17, due to the on-going coronavirus pandemic. The order also extends to eviction proceedings, and precludes new filings or hearings from being heard before May 17. Ballotpedia is tracking how state courts are responding to…
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Alaska Supreme Court Justice Craig Stowers announces early retirement, anticipates wave of mandatory retirements
Thirty-two states have constitutionally mandated retirement ages for state supreme court justices. Twenty of those states mandate retirement at 70 years of age. Alaska is one of them, and four of the five justices on the Alaska Supreme Court will be required to retire between February 2023 and February 2025. Regarding the upcoming turnover of…