Governor Chris Gregoire appoints Judge Steven González to state’s Supreme Court

Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire announced today that she is appoint­ing respect­ed King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge Judge Steven González to the Supreme Court to suc­ceed Ger­ry Alexan­der, who will be retir­ing from the bench at the end of the year.

The appoint­ment, which does not require Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion, is the sec­ond Supreme Court vacan­cy that Gre­goire has filled as governor.

(Pre­vi­ous­ly, she appoint­ed Debra Stephens in 2007. Stephens stood for a full term the next year and ulti­mate­ly ran unopposed).

“I am proud to appoint Judge González to the state’s high­est court,” Gre­goire said in a state­ment announc­ing her deci­sion. “He is a legal schol­ar with deep expe­ri­ence in court, both on the bench as a Supe­ri­or Court judge and as an Assis­tant U. S. Attor­ney and Assis­tant City Attor­ney pros­e­cut­ing cas­es of inter­na­tion­al ter­ror­ism, child pros­ti­tu­tion and hate crimes. His expe­ri­ence with pro­found­ly impor­tant issues, close study of the law and per­spec­tive as a tri­al court judge will make Judge González an excel­lent Supreme Court Justice.”

“It has been a great hon­or to serve on the Supe­ri­or Court for the last ten years. I thank Gov­er­nor Gre­goire for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to now serve on the State Supreme Court,” González said. “I have known and admired Jus­tice Alexan­der for twen­ty years, and it is a priv­i­lege to fol­low in his foot­steps with his colleagues.”

González has an impres­sive resume. He prac­ticed busi­ness and civ­il law with Hillis Clark Mar­tin and Peter­son for sev­er­al years after earn­ing his J.D. from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia Berke­ley Law School in 1991. His pub­lic ser­vice began in 1996 when he became a tri­al attor­ney for the City of Seattle.

Dur­ing the late 1990s, he served as an Assis­tant U.S. Attor­ney for West­ern Wash­ing­ton. While there, he was instru­men­tal in pros­e­cut­ing a very high pro­file case that read­ers are no doubt famil­iar with, Unit­ed States vs. Ressam.

In March of 2002, González was tapped by Gre­goire’s pre­de­ces­sor, Gov­er­nor Gary Locke, to serve on the Supe­ri­or Court bench in King Coun­ty. Vot­ers retained González as a judge the fol­low­ing Novem­ber, and lat­er reelect­ed him for a full term in 2004 and again in 2008. Now, at the age of forty-eight, he appears des­tined to be one of the state Supreme Court’s eight asso­ciate justices.

Chief Jus­tice Bar­bara Mad­sen wel­comed the appointment.

“Judge González is a high­ly regard­ed and expe­ri­enced tri­al court judge, a for­mer fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor and an acknowl­edged leader in improv­ing access to jus­tice for all in Wash­ing­ton,” Maden said in response to the news. “Judge González will be an out­stand­ing addi­tion to the Supreme Court and I am con­fi­dent he will con­tin­ue to serve the pub­lic with great ener­gy and distinction.”

King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine echoed Maden’s sentiments.

“Judge Steven González is a dis­tin­guished jurist who is deeply knowl­edge­able, open-mind­ed, and fair,” Con­stan­tine said.

“He has served King Coun­ty excep­tion­al­ly well, ensur­ing access to jus­tice for all, while under­stand­ing the racial dis­par­i­ties that still chal­lenge our jus­tice sys­tem. I am proud that he will be serv­ing the entire state as a Supreme Court Justice.”

González has served on sev­er­al boards and task forces dur­ing his time as a judge. Present­ly, he chairs the Wash­ing­ton State Access to Jus­tice Board, and c0-chairs the Race and Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Sys­tem Task Force. He and col­league Mary Yu were recent­ly rec­og­nized by the Wash­ing­ton State Bar Asso­ci­a­tion as Out­stand­ing Judges of the Year for their efforts to strength­en equal access to justice.

González will begin serv­ing on the Supreme Court fol­low­ing the arrival of the new year, when out­go­ing Jus­tice Ger­ry Alexan­der’s retire­ment will become effec­tive. That will give him about a month and a half to pre­pare for his new duties.