Mary Fairhurst, the dis­tin­guished Chief Jus­tice of the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court, will retire in Jan­u­ary to focus on her health, the Court announced today.

“It is with a clear head and a sad heart that I have made the deci­sion that it is time for me to leave the Court,” Fairhurst said in a state­ment. “It has been my hon­or and priv­i­lege to serve as a jus­tice of this court since 2003, par­tic­u­lar­ly as the Chief Jus­tice for the past three years. I am so proud of the work we’ve done as a branch dur­ing this time and feel the time is right to focus on my health.”

Fairhurst is bat­tling can­cer in mul­ti­ple organs (lungs, liv­er, thy­roid and spleen) and has been giv­en a diag­no­sis of between nine months and two years to live.

Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court Jus­tice Mary Fairhurst lis­tens to oral argu­ment in the McCleary case (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/Northwest Pro­gres­sive Institute)

Fairhurst was part of the major­i­ty that brave­ly took a stand for major­i­ty rule in Wash­ing­ton State by strik­ing down Tim Eyman’s ini­tia­tives to uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly require a two-thirds vote to pass rev­enue bills.

Fairhurst also wrote the unan­i­mous major­i­ty opin­ion strik­ing down Wash­ing­ton State’s death penal­ty statute last year, a land­mark vic­to­ry for human rights.

And, in 2005, Fairhurst authored an excep­tion­al dis­sent dis­agree­ing that the so-called Defense of Mar­riage Act (DOMA) was constitutional.

What a lega­cy she leaves.

“I thank Chief Jus­tice Fairhurst for her com­mit­ment to serv­ing jus­tice for all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans,” said Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, the state’s chief executive.

“She has led on access to jus­tice for low-income indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies, enhanc­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for women and minori­ties in the legal pro­fes­sion and work­ing to increase pub­lic legal edu­ca­tion for chil­dren and youth.”

“Mary’s remark­able lead­er­ship and tire­less com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment will con­tin­ue to have a pos­i­tive impact on our state long after she’s left the bench. I wish her the very best in a well-deserved retirement.”

Because Fairhurst is retir­ing pri­or to com­plet­ing her term, Inslee will appoint her suc­ces­sor. Inslee pre­vi­ous­ly appoint­ed Mary Yu to take the place of Jim John­son, and Yu remains in office today, hav­ing been retained by the voters.

Who­ev­er is appoint­ed will serve through Novem­ber of 2020 and pos­si­bly beyond. The seat will be con­test­ed dur­ing next year’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, along with the seats held by Debra Stephens and Charles John­son. Fairhurst’s cur­rent term was sched­uled to end in Jan­u­ary 2021, so she will be exit­ing about one year early.

In Wash­ing­ton State, Supreme Court jus­tices are elect­ed for six-year terms and are cho­sen by the vot­ers. The nine statewide posi­tions are all non­par­ti­san. The Court’s oral argu­ments are tele­vised, unlike those of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Vacan­cies, as allud­ed to above, are filled by appointment.

Fairhurst’s col­leagues will choose a new Chief Jus­tice to pre­side over the Court begin­ning in Jan­u­ary. The new Chief Jus­tice will be announced next month on the day after the Novem­ber gen­er­al elec­tion con­cludes (Novem­ber 6th).

Inslee’s office will draw up a list of poten­tial can­di­dates to take Fairhurst’s place and care­ful­ly vet them. Inslee will then select a new Justice.

The last three jus­tices to be appoint­ed to the Court have all been retained by the vot­ers and remain on the Court today. Aside from Jus­tice Mary Yu, the list includes Jus­tices Debra Stephens and Steven Gon­za­lez, both appoint­ed by Inslee’s pre­de­ces­sor, Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire, in office from 2005–2013.