Justice Mary Fairhurst: 1957–2021

One of Wash­ing­ton State’s best, most dis­tin­guished jurists has passed on, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court announced this morn­ing.

Retired Wash­ing­ton Supreme Court Jus­tice Mary Fairhurst died peace­ful­ly at her home last night, sur­round­ed by her fam­i­ly, a state­ment from the Court said.

Fairhurst had been bat­tling can­cer since 2008, and chose to retire from the Supreme Court almost two years ago, cit­ing the need to focus on her health.

“I want to remind you that time is pre­cious. For what­ev­er rea­sons, this is our indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive time and place. It is when and where we are serv­ing,” Jus­tice Fairhurst remarked in a speech to a joint ses­sion of the Leg­is­la­ture in 2019. (At the time, Fairhurst was serv­ing as Chief Jus­tice.) “None of us know how many days we have to make a dif­fer­ence. This is espe­cial­ly true for me.”

Fairhurst was sixty-four.

The NPI team has long admired and appre­ci­at­ed Jus­tice Fairhurst’s work. Last year, fol­low­ing her retire­ment, NPI pre­sent­ed Jus­tice Fairhurst with the Lynn Allen Award, NPI’s high­est hon­or. Jus­tice Fairhurst’s cita­tion reads 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.

Take a few moments to watch Jus­tice Fairhurst’s accep­tance speech, orig­i­nal­ly deliv­ered to NPI’s guests and sup­port­ers, by press­ing Play below. You’ll hear Mary tell her famous starfish sto­ry as part of these remarks:

Los­ing Jus­tice Fairhurst hurts. She was one of the best of us. She con­sis­tent­ly mod­eled exem­plary lead­er­ship and treat­ed oth­ers with kind­ness and respect.

Our team extends our deep­est con­do­lences to Jus­tice Fairhurst’s fam­i­ly, oth­er friends, and sur­viv­ing col­leagues on the Supreme Court.

Fit­ting­ly, each col­league who served with Fairhurst made a con­tri­bu­tion to the state­ment the Court released hon­or­ing her and con­firm­ing her death.

“Chief Jus­tice Fairhurst was an inspi­ra­tion to every­one. She was always pos­i­tive yet with both feet on the ground,” said Chief Jus­tice Steven González.

“We are grate­ful for her lead­er­ship and for the time she shared so gen­er­ous­ly with all of us and send our con­do­lences to her entire family.”

“Jus­tice Fairhurst pos­sessed an incred­i­ble inner strength and main­tained a pos­i­tive atti­tude and a gen­uine con­cern and empa­thy for oth­ers less for­tu­nate,” said Asso­ciate Chief Jus­tice Charles W. Johnson.

“Mary believed in pub­lic ser­vice, but she believed more in know­ing each per­son she served. For Mary, ser­vice had names and faces,” said Jus­tice Bar­bara Mad­sen. “She believed in good­ness, beau­ty, pur­pose, and love. Life has been bet­ter for a lot of peo­ple because Mary cared about them.”

“Not only was Mary a great attor­ney and Jus­tice, but she was always one of the kind­est peo­ple I know. Undoubt­ed­ly she was the most sin­cere — and sure­ly — the most fun with whom to laugh,” said Jus­tice Susan Owens.

“Mary was the most authen­tic, lov­ing per­son I have ever known. She tru­ly made no dis­tinc­tion between her work life and her home life in terms of val­ues and per­son­al phi­los­o­phy — she was a friend to every­one she met,” said Jus­tice Debra Stephens. “I’m remind­ed of the say­ing that, ‘jus­tice is what love looks like in pub­lic.’ Mary embod­ied that, and she was a bril­liant jus­tice because she under­stood that work­ing for jus­tice is an act of love.”

“Mary stands out as a bea­con of hope, car­ing, and heal­ing — qual­i­ties we so des­per­ate­ly need all the time, but espe­cial­ly now. I am so sor­ry that we lost her big heart, her inclu­sion of all of us in the judi­cial branch as fam­i­ly, and her lead­er­ship in uphold­ing the qual­i­ty and inde­pen­dence of the judi­cial branch,” said Jus­tice Sheryl Gor­don McCloud.

“And I am trag­i­cal­ly sor­ry to have lost her per­son­al advice to me about hope­ful­ness, open­ness, col­le­gial­i­ty, and kindness.”

“So, to try to learn from Mary’s teach­ing, I should also say:  what won­der­ful gifts Mary gave me!  She could fill me with hope when I was down, com­pas­sion when I was angry, appre­ci­a­tion for a dif­fer­ent point of view when I was stub­born, and con­nec­tion with com­mu­ni­ty when I was alone. Also a good drink when I was thirsty! Thank you for every­thing, Mary.”

“Mary was among the most coura­geous and lov­ing indi­vid­u­als I have known; her coura­geous opin­ion on behalf of LGBTQ+ fam­i­lies was his­tor­i­cal and it has nev­er been for­got­ten,” said Jus­tice Mary Yu. “Mary’s mir­a­cle was grant­ed so many times in her life­time and I am just grate­ful to have had extra time with her to laugh, break bread, and to tell sto­ries of love and trav­el.  We shall miss her, but those who loved her know that we must car­ry for­ward her spir­it of opti­mism and joy.”

“Chief Jus­tice Fairhurst wel­comed me to the bench with her trade­mark grace, trust and love,” said Jus­tice Raquel Mon­toya-Lewis. “I will be for­ev­er grate­ful for her kind­ness and her com­mit­ment to justice.”

“Mary meant the world to me and all the staff at the Supreme Court,” said Cindy Phillips, her assis­tant for more than two decades.

“The best deci­sion I ever made was to say yes when she asked me to work with her at the Court. I learned from her every day.”

“I am deeply sad­dened about the loss of Jus­tice Mary Fairhurst,” said Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee in a sep­a­rate statement.

“She was a tal­ent­ed legal mind, a won­der­ful, thought­ful per­son and a ded­i­cat­ed pub­lic ser­vant. Mary was deeply com­mit­ted to her com­mu­ni­ty and was always try­ing to find ways to sup­port those most in need.”

“She will be remem­bered for her gen­eros­i­ty, com­pas­sion and courage. Mary cham­pi­oned mar­riage equal­i­ty and stood firm against the death penalty.”

“Mary led on access to jus­tice for low-income indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies, enhanced oppor­tu­ni­ties for women and peo­ple of col­or in the legal pro­fes­sion and worked to increase pub­lic legal edu­ca­tion for chil­dren and young people.”

“Pri­or to being elect­ed to the State Supreme Court, she served as an assis­tant attor­ney gen­er­al for six­teen years. Many years lat­er she served as umpire for friend­ly soft­ball games between my staff and Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Ferguson’s staff. She had a deep love of base­ball, with an endur­ing com­mit­ment to the Seat­tle Mariners.”

“Through­out her long bat­tle with can­cer, Mary remained stead­fast and upbeat. Her pos­i­tive atti­tude and resilience were an inspi­ra­tion to all who had the plea­sure and priv­i­lege of know­ing her. Tru­di and I send our con­do­lences to her fam­i­ly, friends and col­leagues. She will be great­ly missed.”

“There are few peo­ple in recent years who have been as beloved in the judi­cia­ry, the Gon­za­ga Law alum­ni com­mu­ni­ty, the Attor­ney General’s Office, or the Bar Asso­ci­a­tion than Chief Jus­tice Mary Fairhurst,” said Wash­ing­ton State Trea­sur­er Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti. “There is a rea­son she became the leader of every orga­ni­za­tion or insti­tu­tion she joined. And while her pass­ing is a painful and tremen­dous loss to the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton, the joy she brought wher­ev­er she went was always con­ta­gious and will con­tin­ue on with all who knew her, as we con­tin­ue to think of her and all she gave in ser­vice to our state. She will tru­ly be missed.”

“A friend, a men­tor, a leader, a teacher, an expe­ri­encer of mir­a­cles and joy. Mary left this world ear­ly this morn­ing and I am con­fi­dent that I will miss her forever.
Mary was cen­tral to so many impor­tant parts of our lives. She hired both Lau­ra and me into the Attor­ney Gen­er­al’s Office,” said Speak­er Lau­rie Jinkins.

“She helped bring mar­riage equal­i­ty to Wash­ing­ton, writ­ing the dis­sent in Wash­ing­ton’s own case find­ing a ban on LGBTQ mar­riages to be con­sti­tu­tion­al. She presided over our wed­ding and swore me in as Speak­er of the House, one of her last acts as a Supreme Court Justice.”

“I am expe­ri­enc­ing the strangest feel­ings of both heart­break and joy for hav­ing had her in my life while know­ing that she will con­tin­ue to be with me every day.”

Thank you for every­thing, Jus­tice Fairhurst. Your good work on this plan­et is fin­ished, but your con­tri­bu­tions and lega­cy will long endure!