Yes­ter­day evening, at our Sev­en­teenth Anniver­sary Pic­nic, we induct­ed our sev­enth Lynn Allen Award Hon­oree: Retired Supreme Court Jus­tice Mary Fairhurst.

Named for our late sis­ter Lynn Allen, a found­ing board­mem­ber of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, these awards rec­og­nize peo­ple who have made indis­pens­able con­tri­bu­tions to pro­gres­sive caus­es for a decade or more.

We lost Lynn to ovar­i­an can­cer in 2011, but her spir­it has remained with us. (And so have her pub­lished works, pre­served by NPI at Rebuild­ing Democ­ra­cy.)

Lynn emphat­i­cal­ly believed in the impor­tant work of orga­niz­ing rur­al com­mu­ni­ties and act­ing on issues of con­cern to peo­ple liv­ing far away from our big cities and urban areas. She preached and prac­ticed the pol­i­tics of inclusion.

As com­mu­ni­ca­tions direc­tor of the Insti­tute for Washington’s Future, she trav­eled reg­u­lar­ly to Washington’s rur­al coun­ties and small towns, cham­pi­oning sus­tain­able busi­ness and agri­cul­tur­al practices.

A skilled facil­i­ta­tor and gift­ed lis­ten­er, Lynn under­stood the impor­tance of and need for effec­tive activism. Not a day goes by when we don’t miss her.

We estab­lished the Lynn Allen Awards as part of our con­tin­u­ing effort to ensure that Lynn’s good works will be remem­bered and her lega­cy appreciated.

Each year, we hon­or two out­stand­ing indi­vid­u­als with a Lynn Allen Award.

In 2017, we pre­sent­ed the very first Lynn Allen Awards to Joni Earl and Paul Lawrence. In 2018, Major Gen­er­al Paul Eaton (Retired) and Alex Hen­drick­son became our third and fourth hon­orees. In 2019, Estela Orte­ga and Al Gar­man became our fifth and sixth hon­orees. Last night, the leg­endary Jus­tice Mary Fairhurst become the sev­enth Lynn Allen Award recipient.

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

Mary’s award com­men­da­tion is as follows:

An excep­tion­al and wide­ly respect­ed jurist, Mary Fairhurst served the peo­ple as an Asso­ciate Jus­tice and Chief Jus­tice of the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court for sev­en­teen years after work­ing in the Attor­ney Gen­er­al’s office in many roles, includ­ing as divi­sion chief. While on the Court, she authored the major­i­ty opin­ion in Gre­go­ry that struck down the death penal­ty in Wash­ing­ton State, as well as the lead­ing dis­sent in the Ander­son case, which sought an affir­ma­tion that laws against mar­riage equal­i­ty were incom­pat­i­ble with the Con­sti­tu­tion. In anoth­er notable case, League of Edu­ca­tion Vot­ers, she helped pro­tect Wash­ing­ton’s cher­ished tra­di­tion of major­i­ty rule in the Leg­is­la­ture. Her work eth­ic and sta­mi­na in the face of repeat­ed can­cer diag­noses demon­strate her pro­fes­sion­al­ism and pas­sion for justice.

This KING5 sto­ry by Drew Mikkelsen goes into more detail about Mary’s bat­tle with can­cer and is worth watch­ing. Mary’s oth­er hon­ors include:

• Amer­i­can Inns of Court Pro­fes­sion­al­ism Award for the Ninth Circuit
• Charles A. Gold­mark Dis­tin­guished Ser­vice Award from the Legal Foun­da­tion of Wash­ing­ton Board of Trustees
• WSBA Award of Merit
• Stew­ard of Jus­tice Award from then-Attor­ney Gen­er­al Chris­tine Gregoire
• The Coun­cil for Pub­lic Legal Education’s Flame of Democ­ra­cy Award
• William Nevins Award for dis­tin­guished ser­vice in pub­lic legal education

Press play below to watch Mary’s accep­tance speech.

Con­grat­u­la­tions, Mary, and thank you for your tremen­dous ser­vice to the peo­ple of the State of Wash­ing­ton. Your con­tri­bu­tions tru­ly have been indispensable.