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James R. Winchester
This page is about the Oklahoma Supreme Court justice. If you are looking for information on the former federal judge for the District of Maryland, please see James Winchester.
2000 - Present
2029
25
James R. Winchester is a judge for District 5 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2000. His current term ends on January 7, 2029.
Winchester ran for re-election for the District 5 judge of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 8, 2022.
Winchester was appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court by Governor Frank Keating (R) on January 4, 2000.[1] He was retained by voters in 2002, 2004, 2010, and 2016. To read more about judicial selection in Oklahoma, 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.[2] Winchester received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Winchester received his B.A. from the University of Oklahoma and his J.D. from Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1977.[4][5] He was an attorney in private practice from 1977 to 1983, and a judge for Oklahoma's Sixth District from 1983 to 1997. In 1997 he became a U.S. Administrative Law Judge where he served until 2000 when he was appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.[1] Winchester was awarded the Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association's Outstanding State Trial Court Judge award in 1986.[1] He was an executive board member of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference from 1992 to 1996, and was the conference's president in 1995.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Oklahoma Supreme Court elections, 2022
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 5, James R. Winchester's seat
James R. Winchester was retained to District 5 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 63.5% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
63.5
|
653,330 | ||
No |
36.5
|
375,076 | |||
Total Votes |
1,028,406 | ||||
|
|
2016
- See also: Oklahoma Supreme Court elections, 2016
Justice Winchester filed to stand for retention by voters in 2016.
Election results
November 8 general election
2010
Winchester was retained to the supreme court with 65.02% of the vote.[6]
2004
Winchester was retained to the supreme court by voters on November 2, 2004.[7]
2002
Winchester was retained to the supreme court by voters on November 5, 2002.[1]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
James R. Winchester 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.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- 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.
James
Winchester
Oklahoma
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican as of 2020
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Winchester was a registered Republican as of 2020. He was appointed by Gov. Frank Keating (R) in 2000.
Other Scores:
Noteworthy cases
Online access to court records
As of June 10, 2008, the Oklahoma Supreme Court removed court records from the internet. Previously able to access these records online, after June 10th the public no longer had the ability to access certain information from legal documents. Winchester, who was chief justice at the time of the decision, supported and joined in the ruling limiting access. He contended that the reason for removing the records was to protect individuals from identity theft.[10]
State supreme court judicial selection in Oklahoma
- See also: Judicial selection in Oklahoma
The nine justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. Each justice is appointed by the governor from a list of three names compiled by the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission.[11][12]
The appointed justice serves an initial term of at least one year, after which they must stand for retention during the next general election. Subsequent terms last six years.[11][13]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:
- at least 30 years old;
- a qualified voter in his or her respective district for at least one year; and
- licensed to practice for at least five years in the state (or have five years of service as a judge of a court of record).[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by peer vote, serving in that capacity for two years.[11]
Vacancies
If a justice retires before the end of his or her term, the vacancy is filled just as it normally would be, with the governor appointing a successor from a list of names provided by the nominating commission. If the appointment is not made within 60 days of the vacancy, the chief justice is responsible for selecting a replacement.[14] The appointed justice then must stand for retention in the next general election after he or she has served one year on the bench to serve out the remainder of his or her predecessor's term.[11][13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
|
Officeholder Oklahoma Supreme Court District 5 |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma, "Justice James R. Winchester, District No. 5," accessed August 22, 2014
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Martindale.com, "James R. Winchester," accessed July 5, 2021
- ↑ Project Vote Smart, "Justice James R. Winchester (OK)," accessed July 5, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma Secretary of State, "Official 2010 General Election Results," accessed July 5, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma Board of Elections, "2004 General Election Results," archived April 18, 2016
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ News OK, "Court limits access to public records," archived April 18, 2016
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Oklahoma," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma State Courts Network, "Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Justia, "Section VII-B-5," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma Public Research System, "Section VII-B-4: Vacancy in Judicial Office - Filling," accessed September 22, 2021
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Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Oklahoma, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Oklahoma • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Oklahoma, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Oklahoma
State courts:
Oklahoma Supreme Court • Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals • Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals • Oklahoma District Courts • Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court of Existing Claims
State resources:
Courts in Oklahoma • Oklahoma judicial elections • Judicial selection in Oklahoma
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