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Jeff Bivins
2014 - Present
2030
11
Jeff Bivins is a judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court Middle Section. He assumed office on July 15, 2014. His current term ends on September 1, 2030.
Bivins ran for re-election for judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court Middle Section. He won in the retention election on August 4, 2022.
In August 2023, Bivins was again elected unanimously by the court to serve as Chief Justice for a three-year term, which became effective on September 1, 2025. He succeeded Holly Kirby.[1]
Bivins served as chief justice from September 2016 to September 2021.[2][3][4] He succeeded Sharon Lee as chief justice.
Bivins first became a member of the court through gubernatorial appointment. He was appointed to the court by Governor Bill Haslam (R) on April 3, 2014, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice William Koch.[5][6] Bivins took the bench on July 15, 2014, and was retained by voters in August 2016.[7] 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.[8] Bivins received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[9] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Bivins received his undergraduate degree in political science and criminal justice from East Tennessee State University in 1982 and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1986.[10][11] He was an attorney in private practice from 1986 to 1995, when he became executive vice president and general counsel to Park Bath Corporation. In 1996, Bivins became assistant commissioner and general counsel to the Tennessee Department of Personnel, where he worked until 1999. From 1999 to 2000, Bivins was a judge on the Twenty-First Circuit Court. In 2000, he returned to the Department of Personnel after losing his election to a full term on the Twenty-First Circuit Court. In 2001, Bivins returned to the private sector, where he worked until 2005, when Governor Phil Bredesen (D) appointed him to the Twenty-First Circuit Court. He served on that court until 2011, when he was appointed by Governor Haslam (R) to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, Middle Section.[12][13] In 2014, Bivins was appointed by Governor Haslam (R) to serve on the Tennessee Supreme Court. [5][11]
Bivins was a fellow in the Nashville, Tennessee, and American Bar Associations, as well as a member of the Tennessee and Williamson County Bar Associations.[10] He was a member of the John Marshall and Harry Phillips American Inns of Court, and served as president of the John Marshall American Inn of Court from 2003 to 2008. Bivins served on the Tennessee Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, the Board of Judicial Conduct, and the Tennessee Judicial Conference executive committee. He also served as president of the Tennessee Judicial Conference.[3][10]
Elections
2022
See also: Tennessee Supreme Court elections, 2022
Tennessee Supreme Court Middle Section, Bivins' seat
Jeff Bivins was retained to the Tennessee Supreme Court Middle Section on August 4, 2022 with 71.5% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
71.5
|
462,036 | ||
No |
28.5
|
183,853 | |||
Total Votes |
645,889 | ||||
|
|
2016
Bivins was retained by voters on August 4, 2016.
| Tennessee Supreme Court Retention, Jeff Bivins, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes votes | |
 Jeff Bivins | 70.79% | |
| Source: Tennessee Secretary of State Official Results | ||
2014
July
Bivins was appointed to the court by Governor Haslam (R) on April 3, 2014, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice William Koch.[5][6] Bivins took the bench on July 15, 2014, and was retained by voters in August 2016.[7]
August
- See also: Tennessee judicial elections, 2014
Bivins was retained to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals with 65.2 percent of the vote on August 7, 2014. [13]
2012
- See also: Tennessee judicial elections, 2012
Bivins was retained to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals with 71.2% of the vote on August 2, 2012.[14]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jeff Bivins 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.[15]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[16]
- 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.
Jeff
Bivins
Tennessee
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Appointed with retention - Key Factors:
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Bivins donated $1,250 to Republican candidates. He was appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam (R). At the time of his 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.[17][18][19]
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.[18]
Chief justice
According to the Tennessee Constitution, the justices of the supreme court select the chief justice.[20] 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.[17][18] Judges are voted upon by the voters of the whole state.[21]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Nashville Post, “Jeffery Bivins elected Tennessee Supreme Court chief justice" accessed September 16, 2025
- ↑ Knoxville News Sentinel, "Bivins named chief justice of Tennessee Supreme Court," August 21, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Tennessee State Courts, "Justice Bivins Elected by Colleagues to Serve as Chief Justice of Tennessee Supreme Court," August 19, 2016
- ↑ Tennessee Courts, "Justice Page elected Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court," August 24, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Tennessee State Courts, "Gov. Haslam Appoints Bivins to the Tennessee Supreme Court," April 4, 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Commercial Appeal, "Haslam appoints Jeff Bivins to Tennessee Supreme Court," archived October 21, 2014
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tennessee Secretary of State, "2016 State and Federal Candidates," accessed June 30, 2016
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Tennessee State Courts, "Jeffrey S. Bivins," accessed July 28, 2016
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Tennessee Judicial Nominating Commission, "Application for Nomination to Judicial Office: Jeff S. Bivins," January 27, 2014
- ↑ Tennessee Government Newsroom, "Haslam Appoints Bivins to Court of Criminal Appeals," archived November 5, 2011
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Tennessee Secretary of State, "August 7, 2014, Judicial Retention Results," accessed July 30, 2021
- ↑ Tennessee Secretary of State, "August 2, 2012 Judicial Retention -Results by County," accessed July 30, 2021
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 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 - ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 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
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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
