State Supreme Court

State Supreme Court         positions 2, 8, and 9

Position 2


Justice Susan Owens

https://www.courts.wa.gov/appellate_trial_courts/supreme/bios/?fa=scbios.display_file&fileID=owens

There’s not much to add to what I have posted in years past. She’s doing a good job, and incidentally, she is running unopposed. It is my general practice not to vote for people running unopposed unless I think they deserve the recognition. I think Justice Owens does, so I will be voting for Susan Owens.

 On November 7, 2000, Judge Susan Owens was elected the seventh woman to serve on the Washington State Supreme Court. She joined the court after serving nineteen years as District Court Judge in Western Clallam County, where she was the County's senior elected official with five terms. She also served as the Quileute Tribe's Chief Judge for five years and Chief Judge of the Lower Elwha S'Klallam Tribe for six plus years.

Justice Owens was born and raised in Kingston, North Carolina, where she graduated from high school. Her father, the late Frank Owens, was a small town general practitioner, and her mother, Hazel, is a retired law enforcement officer. She attended college at Duke University. After graduation in 1971, she attended law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, receiving her J.D. in 1975. She was admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 1975, and the Washington State Bar in 1976.
Justice Owens was active in the District & Municipal Court Judges' Association for many years. She was President-Elect of DMCJA prior to her election to the Supreme Court. She previously served as Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer, and Board member. She served on the Long Range Planning, Diversity, Conference, and Education committees. In 1990, she was co-founder and Chair of the Rural Courts Committee, and has taught that subject at the Judicial College. She is extremely proud to be a member of that most important judiciary.

Justice Owens is passionate about domestic violence issues that impact children, and judicial education in that area. She has been a national trainer in that subject. She has trained judges from Anchorage to Albuquerque, and participated in the writing of the Northwest Tribal Judges Domestic Violence Manual. She has lectured at the National College of Prosecuting Attorneys' Domestic Violence Conference. She is committed to ongoing efforts in this very important area of law.
Justice Owens serves on the Rules Committee, the Bench-Bar-Press Committee, and the Board for Judicial Administration. She is the Court's chair for the Fall Judicial Conference. She also serves on the Washington State Bar Association's Leadership Institute Advisory Board and the Committee on Public Defense.

Justice Owens loves baseball, and her children - Sunny and Owen, daughter-in-law Ann, son-in-law Chad Nelson, and her three grandchildren. She also loves the Olympic National Park, Lake Ozette, and everything about the West End of Clallam County.

from my 2012 bog post:

Susan Owens, incumbent, endorsed by Progressive Voter, been a good judge for 12 years. No reason to change now. Judged Well Qualified by King Co Bar Assoc. Described by a fellow justice as “bright, well-intentioned, thoughtful and compassionate, and takes her job very seriously.”

Position 8

Stephen Gonzalez, incumbent (2012)
Nathan Choi
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/sep/17/two-of-three-incumbents-unchallenged-in-state-supr/
This story reports that Justice Gonzalez’s opponent, Nathan Choi, has yet to begin fundraising in late September. If this sounds like he’s not terribly serious, that may be because he isn’t. It also has to do with his evident disability to read and understand campaign finance and reporting rules.

Justice Gonzalez comes highly recommended by both parties, as he did in 2012 when he was first elected. He never met his opponent then and this year he has just met his current opponent, Nathan Choi, at a candidate debate in Spokane.

Mr Choi says he’s been busy and is now (late September) getting into campaign mode. Mr Choi was sued by the Attorney General’s office for failure to abide by Public Disclosure Commission rules in a 2017 run for Court of Appeals. He did not respond to the lawsuit so is now in default. It looks like he’s doing it again. Thus far he has failed to report the $1867.00 filing fee, or anything else, for that matter. He puts it down to “glitches. Its not intentional, little things that have to be resolved. It’s not like I’m colluding with Russians or anything.” He was admonished by the King County PDC. He has refused to participate in the Bar Association rating process, claiming it is prejudiced.

Justice Gonzalez did participate and has been rated (again) as “exceptionally well qualified.”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/sep/27/vying-for-washington-supreme-court-seat-choi-gonza/
Choi, in the debate, referred to Brett Kavanaugh as “this honorable gentleman.” Sorry but I have to disagree, rather vehemently. Choi also mentioned that he admired Justice Clarence Thomas, who he said “was tormented like Kavanaugh is now.”

https://31stdistrictdemocrats.org/washington-supreme-court-justice-position-8-steve-gonzalez/
This is a questionnaire filled in by Justice Gonzalez but not by Mr Choi. Justice Gonzalez is considered “very liberal” by some, and his response to the question about Black Lives Matter made it clear that he does in fact care about justice for everybody – which is what we want in a Supreme Court justice.

Steve Gonzalez https://justicegonzalez.com/ is endorsed by Democrats statewide, and by labor, progressives, Indivisible, and NW Tribal Court Judges’ association. He is rated exceptionally well qualified by Latina/o Bar Assoc of WA, WA Women lawyers, Veterans Bar Assoc, Cardozo Society, QLaw (LGBTQ), Joint Asian Bar Assoc, & W WA county bar associations., WA Ed Assoc, VoteProChoice – and the list goes on.

https://www.facebook.com/JusticeSteveGonzalez   One has the impression of a basically decent human being who takes his judicial duties very seriously. He likes libraries. He does lots of pro-bono stuff, lecturing, teaching, etc.

from my 2012 blog:

position 8
Steve Gonzalez, incumbent, appointed 2012, endorsed by Progressive Voter, respected and experienced judge on King Co Superior Court, former Assistant US Attorney. “We need to have the courage to speak for people who don’t have a voice.”

You can scroll down to the primaries to get the full pile of dirt on Nathan Choi. There’s a whole lot of it. I’m just now realizing why he is so supportive of Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas. To quote from my previous post:  Choi has been involved in a messy divorce, trying to take the 3 children and move to Hawaii. The court and Guardian Ad Litem for the children found him less than honest. It gets worse – seems he assaulted two of the children and threatened to kill their mother.

Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), given a choice between a truly decent mensch and an abusive creep, I’ll be voting for Steve Gonzalez.


Position 9

Sheryl Gordon McCloud
https://www.facebook.com/mccloudforjustice/
https://justicesherylmccloud.com
https://www.courts.wa.gov/appellate_trial_courts/supreme/bios/?fa=scbios.display_file&fileID=gordon_mccloud

Sheryl Gordon McCloud is endorsed by Progressive Voter and an impressive array of judges and attorneys. She wants to assure that trials are conducted properly. “I’ve been fighting for fairness for all, including those who have often lacked meaningful access to the judicial system.” Says one attorney: “McCloud’s reputation for fairness and her tireless pursuit of justice will benefit all of our State’s citizens.” She represented a man wrongly sentenced to death and won him a retrial. She worked to win sick leave benefits for pregnant women. She has fought for battered women who fight back.  She has also fought to support the right to own guns. Gotta say, she’s fair across ideological lines.

Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud was elected to the Washington Supreme Court in 2012 after nearly 30 years as an accomplished appellate lawyer. As the recipient of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' highest award, the William O. Douglas Award, she was recognized for "extraordinary courage" in being willing to take on some of the toughest cases. Justice McCloud was an invited member of the American Association of Appellate Lawyers and a founding member of the Washington Appellate Lawyers Association, both of which limit membership to the most accomplished appellate lawyers.

Justice McCloud also taught classes at Seattle University School of Law on a variety of topics including appellate advocacy and death penalty litigation. In addition, she has published articles and spoken to law and community groups on topics ranging from ethics to representation of indigent clients.
Now, as a Supreme Court Justice, she serves as Chair of the Washington State Gender & Justice Commission. She continues to speak regularly at legal and community events throughout the state. She is also a member of the Washington State Bar Association’s Council on Public Defense. She was the recipient of Washington Women Lawyers President’s Award in 2015.

Justice McCloud has participated in many significant cases that have come before the Court and was the author of the Court’s 2017 opinion in State v. Arlene’s Flowers, where the Court unanimously held that Washington’s Law Against Discrimination protects the rights of a gay couple seeking to buy flowers for their wedding and that the religious beliefs of the shop owner are not a bar to equal treatment.

Justice McCloud lives in Kitsap County with her husband Michael McCloud, who is an educator in the public schools. They have two grown sons.

Unfortunately her facebook page appears to have been hijacked by a 9-11 conspiracy theorist. In between those, we see that Justice McCloud has been endorsed by NARAL, Young Democrats, Washington Conservation Voters, OneAmerica Votes, Washington State Labor Council . . . I think you get the idea. This is someone who shares my values, and for that I will vote for her, even though she is running unopposed. She did have an opponent, but he was disbarred and so became ineligible to run.

I will be voting for Sheryl Gordon McCloud