OLYMPIA—Justice Debra L Stephens will serve as the 59th chief justice of the Washington Supreme Court, following a vote of her colleagues on the Washington Supreme Court on Wednesday, November 6.
Stephens will be sworn into the position in January, succeeding current Chief Justice Steven C. González. Since 1996, the internal vote for the position of chief justice has been held every four years at the regularly scheduled November administrative meeting of the court. The next full, four-year term election for chief justice will occur in November 2028.
As chief justice, Stephens will serve as the court’s chief spokesperson, preside over the court’s public hearings and co-chair the state’s Board for Judicial Administration, the primary policy-setting group of the state judiciary.
Stephens was appointed to the Washington Supreme Court in January 2008, and subsequently elected to a six-year term in November 2008, then reelected in 2014 and 2020. She served as Chief Justice from 2019-2020, serving out the remainder of Justice Mary Fairhurst’s term when she retired from the Court. Fairhurst died of cancer in 2021.
Stephens previously served as a judge for Division Three of the Court of Appeals, and is the first judge from that court to serve on the Washington Supreme Court, as well as the first woman from Eastern Washington to do so. Justice Stephens attended Gonzaga University School of Law as a Thomas More Scholar, and practiced mainly appellate law before taking the bench.
Stephens will be officially sworn in as chief on January 13th in a ceremony at the Temple of Justice in Olympia.
SOURCE: Washington Courts
Author: Mario Lotmore
