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Karen R. Carroll
Karen R. Carroll was a judge of the Vermont Supreme Court. She assumed office on April 1, 2017. She left office on August 23, 2025.
Carroll retired as a judge on the Vermont Supreme Court on August 23, 2025.[1] Carroll first became a member of the Vermont Supreme Court when she was appointed by Gov. Phil Scott (R) in March 2017 to succeed retired Justice John Dooley. Carroll was sworn in on April 1, 2017, for a six-year term. To read more about judicial selection in Vermont, click here.[2]
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] Caroll received a confidence score of Indeterminate.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Carroll graduated cum laude from Salve Regina College in 1985 with a B.A.S. in criminal justice and English and French literature. She received her J.D., cum laude, from Vermont Law School in 1988. Before serving on the Vermont Supreme Court, Carroll served as a judge for the Vermont Superior Courts in Bennington County, Vermont from 2000 to 2017. From 1994 to 2000, she worked as a prosecutor for the Southern Vermont Drug Task Force at the Vermont Attorney General's Office and a special assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont. She worked as the deputy state's attorney in Windham County from 1988 to 1994.[5]
Elections
2023
Carroll was retained by the Vermont General Assembly on March 28, 2023 for a six-year term.[6]
2017
Carroll was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court by Gov. Phil Scott (R) in March 2017 to succeed retired Justice John Dooley.[2]
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.
Karen
Carroll
Vermont
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Indeterminate - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Carroll was appointed in 2017 by Gov. Gary Herbert (R).
State supreme court judicial selection in Vermont
- See also: Judicial selection in Vermont
The five justices of the Vermont 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 Vermont Senate.[9] Once confirmed, appointees serve six-year terms. At the end of each term, judges face retention by a vote of the Vermont General Assembly.[9]
Qualifications
To serve on the Vermont Supreme Court, a judge must:
- be a state resident; and
- have practiced law as an attorney or served as a judge in the state for at least 10 years, with five years preceding their application to the commission.
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is chosen through the same assisted appointment method as the other judges on the court and serves in that capacity for a full six-year term.[9]
Vacancies
When the state Senate is in session, midterm vacancies are filled by the same assisted appointment method otherwise used to select judges. If the Senate is not in session, the governor may choose to make an interim appointment until the Senate convenes and acts upon the appointment. The appointed justice will serve until the Senate consents to the appointment. If the appointment is confirmed, the appointee will serve a six-year term. If the appointment is not confirmed by the Senate, the judicial office will be vacated.[10] There is one current vacancy on the Vermont Supreme Court, out of the court's five judicial positions.
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Vermont Judiciary, "Vermont Supreme Court Associate Justice Karen Carroll to Retire in August," accessed August 25, 2025
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Office of Governor Phil Scott, "Governor Phil Scott Selects Karen Russell Carroll as Vermont Supreme Court Justice," March 23, 2017
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Vermont Secretary of State, "Civil Government: State of Vermont," 2013
- ↑ VTdigger, "Several Vermont judges and all Supreme Court justices get more bench time," accessed September 26, 2023
- ↑ 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 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Vermont," accessed August 20, 2021
- ↑ Vermont General Assembly, "Judiciary Department - § 33. Interim judicial appointments," accessed April 18, 2023
Federal courts:
Second Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Vermont • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Vermont
State courts:
Vermont Supreme Court • Vermont Superior Courts • Vermont Probate Court • Vermont Judicial Bureau
State resources:
Courts in Vermont • Vermont judicial elections • Judicial selection in Vermont
