Holly Kirby
Holly Kirby is a judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section. She assumed office on September 1, 2014. Her current term ends on September 1, 2030.
Kirby ran for re-election for judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section. She won in the retention election on August 4, 2022.
In August 2023, Kirby was elected unanimously by the court to serve as the Chief Justice for a two-year term, which became effective on September 1, 2023.[1] She served as Chief Justice until September 2025. Kirby is the fourth woman to serve as Tennessee's Supreme Court Justice, since its founding in 1870.[1]
Kirby was appointed to the court by Governor Bill Haslam (R) on December 17, 2013, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Janice Holder. Kirby took the bench on September 1, 2014. She faced retention in August 2016.[2][3][4] To read more about judicial selection in Tennessee, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[5] Kirby received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[6] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Kirby received her undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Memphis in 1979 and her J.D. from the University of Memphis School of Law in 1982.[7] Kirby began her legal career in 1982 as a law clerk to Judge Harry Wellford of the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. She then worked as an attorney in private practice from 1983 to 1995 and later became a partner at the firm of Burch, Porter & Johnson. She was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals in 1995. Kirby was the first woman to serve on the court of appeals. She was retained to this court in August 1996, 1998, 2006, and 2014. In late 2013, she was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section, effective September 1, 2014.[7][2]
Elections
2022
See also: Tennessee Supreme Court elections, 2022
Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section, Kirby's seat
Holly Kirby was retained to the Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section on August 4, 2022 with 73.8% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
73.8
|
468,351 | ||
No |
26.2
|
166,200 | |||
Total Votes |
634,551 | ||||
|
|
2016
- See also: Tennessee Supreme Court elections, 2016
Kirby was retained by voters to the Tennessee Supreme Court on August 4, 2016.
Election results
| Tennessee Supreme Court Retention, Holly Kirby, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes votes | |
 Holly Kirby | 71.00% | |
| Source: Tennessee Secretary of State Official Results | ||
2014
- See also: Tennessee judicial elections, 2014
Kirby was retained to the Tennessee Court of Appeals with 64.9 percent of the vote on August 7, 2014. [8][9] An effort to unseat the three Tennessee Supreme Court justices facing retention in 2014 highlighted the issue of retention elections across the state. Click here for more information.
2013
Kirby was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section by Governor Bill Haslam (R) on December 17, 2013, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Janice Holder. Kirby took the bench on September 1, 2014.[2]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Holly Kirby did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[10]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[11]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Holly
Kirby
Tennessee
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Appointed with retention - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Kirby donated $2,000 to Republican candidates. She was appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam (R). At the time of her appointment, the state of Tennessee was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Tennessee
- See also: Judicial selection in Tennessee
The five justices on the Tennessee Supreme Court are selected through assisted appointment. The governor selects a nominee from a list of recommended candidates from a judicial nominating commission. The nominee must be confirmed by the Tennessee General Assembly. Justices face retention elections at the end of their terms.[12][13][14]
The appointment system was adjusted in 2014 with the passage of a state ballot measure titled Tennessee Judicial Selection, Amendment 2. The measure added the required confirmation by the Tennessee legislature. While Tennessee state law changed in 2014 to eliminate the judicial nominating commission and require legislative approval of the governor’s appointee, Gov. Bill Haslam’s Executive Order No. 54 and Gov. Bill Lee’s subsequent Executive Order No. 87 re-established the judicial nominating commission for appointments. Accordingly, Tennessee’s process is effectively assisted appointment with legislative confirmation.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- authorized to practice law in the state;
- a state resident for five years; and
- at least 35 years old.[13]
Chief justice
According to the Tennessee Constitution, the justices of the supreme court select the chief justice.[15] The chief justice serves a four-year term.
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, the governor appoints a replacement justice from a list from a judicial nominating commission. The nominee must be confirmed by both chambers of the state legislature. If filling an interim vacancy, the appointee stands for retention in the next general election at least 30 days after the vacancy occurred. The retained judge serves out the remainder of the unexpired term before again running for retention to serve a full eight-year term.[12][13] Judges are voted upon by the voters of the whole state.[16]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tennessee Courts, "Justice Kirby Elected to Serve As Chief Justice Of Tennessee Supreme Court," August 31, 2023
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 State of Tennessee, "Haslam Appoints Kirby To Tennessee Supreme Court," archived January 12, 2014
- ↑ The Commercial Appeal, "Memphis, Dyersburg, Jackson lawyers apply for state appellate judgeships," archived March 11, 2015
- ↑ The Commercial Appeal, "Tennessee governor names Holly Kirby of Memphis to state high court," archived March 11, 2015
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tennessee State Courts, "Holly Kirby," accessed Jully 28, 2016
- ↑ WJLE.com, "Voters head back to the polls in August (Early voting in July)," archived October 21, 2014
- ↑ Tennessee Secretary of State, "Unofficial Election Results," archived October 22, 2014
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Justia Law, "Tennessee Code Annotated § 17-4-101," accessed April 16, 2025 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "VacancyCode" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Tennessee," archived September 11, 2014
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Tennessee; Judicial Nominating Commissions," accessed September 30, 2021
- ↑ TNCourts.gov, "JUSTICE SHARON LEE ELECTED CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE TENNESSEE SUPREME COURT," August 14, 2014
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Tennessee," accessed August 5, 2016
| ||||||||||
Federal courts:
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Tennessee, Middle District of Tennessee, Western District of Tennessee • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Tennessee, Middle District of Tennessee, Western District of Tennessee
State courts:
Tennessee Supreme Court • Tennessee Court of Appeals • Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals • Tennessee Circuit Court • Tennessee Chancery Courts • Tennessee Criminal Court • Tennessee Probate Court • Tennessee General Sessions Court • Tennessee Juvenile Court • Tennessee Municipal Court
State resources:
Courts in Tennessee • Tennessee judicial elections • Judicial selection in Tennessee
