Become part of the movement for unbiased, accessible election information. Donate today.
John R. Stegner
John R. Stegner was a judge of the Idaho Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2018. He left office on October 31, 2023.
Stegner ran for re-election for judge of the Idaho Supreme Court. He won in the general election on June 2, 2020.
Stegner first became a member of the court by appointment. He was appointed by Gov. Butch Otter (R) on May 22, 2018, to fill the vacancy created by Justice Warren E. Jones' retirement.[1] Stegner's initial term expired on January 3, 2021. Stegner retired from the court on October 31, 2023.[2] To learn more about this vacancy, 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.[3] Stegner received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Stegner previously was a judge of the 2nd Judicial District of Idaho.[5] He served on the court from 1997 to 2018. He was re-elected in May 2014 for a term that would have expired in January 2019.[6]
Biography
Stegner received his bachelor's degree from Whitman College in 1977 and his J.D. from the University of Idaho College of Law in 1982. He was managing editor of the Idaho Law Review.[5]
Stegner's professional experience includes clerking for Judge Harold Ryan on the United States District Court for the District of Idaho for two years and working in private practice for 12 years. He also managed Gov. Butch Otter's (R) first gubernatorial campaign in 1978.[1] Stegner served as a judge on the Idaho 2nd Judicial District Court from 1997 to 2018. Gov. Phil Batt (R) appointed him to that court. Stegner established and presided over Latah County’s Drug Court and Mental Health Court during his tenure as a district judge. In 2018, Otter appointed him to the state supreme court.[5]
Stegner received the Idaho Judiciary's George G. Granata Jr. Award and the Idaho State Bar Association's Distinguished Jurist Award. According to his official biography, he was the first judge to be awarded both.[5]
Appointments
2018
Stegner was appointed to the Idaho Supreme Court by Gov. Butch Otter on May 22, 2018.[1] He was sworn in on June 5, 2018.[5]
Elections
2020
See also: Idaho Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for Idaho Supreme Court
Incumbent John R. Stegner won election in the general election for Idaho Supreme Court on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | John R. Stegner (Nonpartisan) | 100.0 | 264,495 |
| Total votes: 264,495 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2014
- See also: Idaho judicial elections, 2014
Stegner ran for re-election to the 2nd Judicial District. He was elected without opposition in the primary on May 20, 2014.[6]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John R. Stegner did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 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.[7]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[8]
- 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.
John
Stegner
Idaho
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Worked on a campaign for a Republican candidate
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
Stegner managed Gov. Butch Otter's (R) first gubernatorial campaign in 1978. He was a registered Republican prior to 2020. Stegner donated $270 to Republican candidates and organizations. He was appointed by Gov. Butch Otter (R) in 2017. At the time of his appointment, Idaho was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Idaho
- See also: Judicial selection in Idaho
The five justices of the Idaho Supreme Court are elected in nonpartisan elections. They serve six-year terms, after which they must seek re-election if they wish to retain their seat. To learn more about these elections, visit the Idaho judicial elections page.[9]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must:
- be at least 30 years old;
- be a U.S. citizen;
- be an Idaho resident for at least two years;
- be in good standing as an active or judicial member of the state bar for at least two years; and
- a licensed attorney for at least 10 years.[9]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by peer vote to serve a four-year term. [9]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, an interim judge is appointed by the governor from a list of two to four names provided by a nominating commission. This judge will serve out the remainder of the unexpired term, after which he or she must run in a nonpartisan election to remain on the court.[9]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Idaho Press, "Judge John Stegner of Moscow appointed to Idaho Supreme Court," May 22, 2018
- ↑ State of Idaho Judicial Branch, "Idaho Supreme Court Justice John Stegner to Retire," archived July 1, 2023
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 State of Idaho Judicial Branch, "Justice John R. Stegner," accessed July 1, 2021
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Idaho Secretary of State, "Historical data, Statewide Totals," accessed June 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.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed September 14, 2021
| ||||||||||
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Idaho • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Idaho
State courts:
Idaho Supreme Court • Idaho Court of Appeals • Idaho District Courts • Idaho Magistrate Division
State resources:
Courts in Idaho • Idaho judicial elections • Judicial selection in Idaho
