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Kentucky Supreme Court justice vacancy (January 2019)
 |
|---|
| Cunningham Vacancy Kentucky Supreme Court |
| Vacancy date |
| Vacancy status |
| Nomination date |
| March 27, 2019 |
| Table of contents |
|
Selection process About Justice Cunningham |
| See also |
| Recent news External links Footnotes |
Governor Matt Bevin (R) appointed David Buckingham to the Kentucky Supreme Court on March 27, 2019, following the retirement of Justice Bill Cunningham on January 31.[1][2] Buckingham was Bevin's first appointment to the seven-member court.
Bevin was critical of the state's highest court in late 2018 after a unanimous ruling struck down Senate Bill 151, which was an attempt to overhaul the state's pension system. Bevin said before that he wanted the state constitution amended to allow for the appointment rather than election of judges, and said that the justices of the court "don’t have the competence even to be a private practice attorney who can bill at a rate that people would not pay." Responding to the criticism of the court and calls for a change in the selection process, Cunningham said, "[I]t concerns me when we have governors and legislators who have such thin and shallow understanding of our constitutional system, and the separation of powers and the roles judges and courts play."[3]
Under Kentucky law, if there is a midterm vacancy on the state supreme court, the governor appoints a successor from a list of three names provided by the Kentucky Judicial Nominating Commission. The newly-appointed justice needed to run in the next statewide general election, which took place in 2019 to remain on the court.
To read more about other state supreme court vacancies across the country that are filled by appointments, click here.
Full term
- See also: Kentucky Supreme Court elections, 2019
General election
Special general election for Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District
Christopher Nickell defeated Whitney Westerfield in the special general election for Kentucky Supreme Court 1st District on November 5, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Christopher Nickell (Nonpartisan) | 57.3 | 71,991 |
 | Whitney Westerfield (Nonpartisan) | 42.7 | 53,633 | |
| Total votes: 125,624 | |||
 = 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. | ||||
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Partial term
The appointee
Bevin appointed Buckingham on March 27, 2019.[1] Buckingham graduated from Murray State University in 1974 and earned his J.D. from the University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law in 1977. He began serving as a judge for the 42nd District Court in 1982, then joined the 42nd Circuit Court in 1987 and the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1997. He was a senior judge for the Court of Appeals from 2006 to 2010. In 2011, he retired from the bench and returned to private practice.[4]
Makeup of the court
At the time of the vacancy, the makeup of the court was as follows:
- John D. Minton, Jr. - Initially appointed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher
- Debra Hembree Lambert - Elected
- Lisabeth Tabor Hughes - Initially appointed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher
- Laurance VanMeter - Elected
- Michelle Keller - Initially appointed by Gov. Steve Beshear
- Samuel T. Wright III - Elected
The selection process
Judicial selection
- See also: Judicial selection in Kentucky
As of this appointment process, in the event of a midterm retirement by a supreme court justice, they were replaced via gubernatorial appointment. The governor would appoint a successor from a list of three names provided by the Kentucky Judicial Nominating Commission. Cunningham's replacement needed to be elected in 2019 to serve the remainder of Cunningham's term, which expired in 2023.[5]
At the time of the vacancy, selection of Kentucky Supreme Court justices primarily occurred through nonpartisan elections. Justices wishing to serve additional terms had to run for re-election.[5]
At the time of the vacancy, supreme court justices served eight-year terms.
Comparison to other states
- See also: Judicial selection in the states
As of the opening of the vacancy, justices on the Kentucky Supreme Court were selected via nonpartisan elections. This was the second most-common method of selection among the 53 state supreme courts.[6] There were 28 courts with appointed justices and 25 with elected justices. The most common selection method was assisted appointment, in which the governor appoints justices from a list created by a nominating commission, used in 24 state supreme courts. There were also four courts where the governor appoints justices directly without the assistance of a nominating commission. Although nonpartisan elections were the most common election type used to select state supreme court justices, seven states elected supreme court justices in partisan elections and two states held legislative elections, in which members of the state legislature elect new justices. Hover over a state in the chart below to see how it selects supreme court justices.
Nominating commission members
- See also: Kentucky Judicial Nominating Commission
The Kentucky Judicial Nominating Commission is composed of 61 individual commissions throughout the state of Kentucky. The commissions, established by Section 118 of the Kentucky Constitution, help select appointees to judicial seats when there is a mid-term vacancy on a court.[7]
The supreme court has its own commission made up of seven members—two attorneys elected by the Kentucky Bar Association and four citizens appointed by the governor. The four citizens must equally represent Republicans and Democrats. The chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court chairs the commission.[7] The commission responsible for making recommendations to the governor for this vacancy is listed below.
- Chief Justice John D. Minton, Jr. - Chair
- Charles E. English, Jr. (lawyer)
- Susan D. Phillips (lawyer)
- Erika L. Calihan (citizen)
- Mary Michael Corbett (citizen)
- Todd Earwood (citizen)
- Larry Robinson (citizen)
For more information on judicial nominating commissions in Kentucky, click here.
Nomination shortlist
The nominating commission sent the following names to Bevin on March 13, 2019.[8]
- David Buckingham - Judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1997 to 2005, and judge on a circuit court from 1987 to 1996.
- Tyler L. Gill - Judge on a circuit court since 1995, and served as a judge on a district court from 1993 to 1995.
- Carla Williams - Judge on a circuit court since 2004.
About Justice Cunningham
- See also: Bill Cunningham
Cunningham was elected in November 2006 to the 1st Supreme Court District seat.[9][10] He was re-elected without opposition in 2014.
Prior to joining the supreme court, Cunningham was a judge on the 56th Judicial Circuit in Kentucky from 1991 to 2007. For more information on Cunningham's career, click here.
Cunningham received his undergraduate degree from Murray State University in 1962 and his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1969.[9]
Other state supreme court appointments in 2019
- See also: State supreme court vacancies, 2019
The following table lists vacancies to state supreme courts that opened in 2019. Click the link under the Court column for a particular vacancy for more information on that vacancy.
Click here for vacancies that opened in 2020.
| 2019 judicial vacancies filled by appointment | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Court | Date of Vacancy | Justice | Reason | Date Vacancy Filled | Successor |
| Florida Supreme Court | January 7, 2019 | Fred Lewis | Retirement | January 9, 2019 | Barbara Lagoa |
| Florida Supreme Court | January 7, 2019 | Barbara Pariente | Retirement | January 14, 2019 | Robert J. Luck |
| Florida Supreme Court | January 7, 2019 | Peggy Quince | Retirement | January 22, 2019 | Carlos Muñiz |
| Kentucky Supreme Court | January 31, 2019 | Bill Cunningham | Retirement | March 27, 2019 | David Buckingham |
| Mississippi Supreme Court | January 31, 2019 | William Waller | Retirement | December 19, 2018 | Kenny Griffis |
| North Carolina Supreme Court | February 28, 2019 | Mark Martin | Private sector[11] | March 1, 2019 | Cheri Beasley |
| North Carolina Supreme Court | March 1, 2019 | Cheri Beasley | Apppointed to new post[12] | March 11, 2019 | Mark Davis |
| Arizona Supreme Court | March 1, 2019 | John Pelander | Retirement | April 26, 2019 | James Beene |
| Oklahoma Supreme Court | April 10, 2019 | Patrick Wyrick | Elevation to a federal judgeship[13] | November 20, 2019 | Dustin Rowe |
| Oklahoma Supreme Court | April 30, 2019 | John Reif | Retirement | September 17, 2019 | M. John Kane IV |
| Arizona Supreme Court | July 3, 2019 | Scott Bales | Private sector[14] | September 4, 2019 | Bill Montgomery |
| Texas Supreme Court | July 31, 2019 | Jeff Brown | Elevation to a federal judgeship[15] | August 26, 2019 | Jane Bland |
| New Hampshire Supreme Court | August 23, 2019 | Robert Lynn | Retirement | January 7, 2021 | Gordon MacDonald |
| Virginia Supreme Court | September 1, 2019 | Elizabeth McClanahan | Retirement | February 15, 2019 | Teresa M. Chafin |
| Vermont Supreme Court | September 1, 2019 | Marilyn Skoglund | Retirement | December 5, 2019 | William Cohen |
| Kansas Supreme Court | September 8, 2019 | Lee Johnson | Retirement | December 16, 2019 | Evelyn Z. Wilson |
| Delaware Supreme Court | October 30, 2019 | Leo E. Strine Jr. | Retirement | November 7, 2019 | Collins Seitz Jr. |
| Iowa Supreme Court | November 15, 2019 | Mark Cady | Death | January 28, 2020 | Dana Oxley |
| Florida Supreme Court | November 19, 2019 | Robert J. Luck | Elevation to a federal judgeship[16] | September 14, 2020 | Jamie Rutland Grosshans |
| Florida Supreme Court | November 20, 2019 | Barbara Lagoa | Elevation to a federal judgeship[17] | May 26, 2020 | John D. Couriel |
| Kansas Supreme Court | December 17, 2019 | Lawton Nuss | Retirement | March 11, 2020 | Keynen Wall |
| Maine Supreme Court | December 2019 | Jeffrey Hjelm | Retirement | January 6, 2020 | Catherine Connors |
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Bottom Line, "Gov. Matt Bevin makes an appointment to the Kentucky Supreme Court," March 27, 2019
- ↑ WKMS, "Bill Cunningham Discusses His Upcoming Retirement," January 17, 2019
- ↑ Louisville Courier Journal, "Matt Bevin could pick next Supreme Court justice to fill vacant seat," December 28, 2018
- ↑ West Kentucky Star, "Bevin Appoints Buckingham to KY Supreme Court," March 27, 2019
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Kentucky," accessed March 7, 2017
- ↑ Texas and Oklahoma each have two state supreme courts. This figure also includes the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kentucky Courts, "Judicial Nominating Commission," accessed April 30, 2015
- ↑ Courier Journal, "Matt Bevin to pick Kentucky Supreme Court replacement. Meet the finalists," March 13, 2019
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kentucky Supreme Court, "Justice Bill Cunningham," accessed August 7, 2014
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Kentucky judges," accessed January 31, 2019
- ↑ Martin left the court to become the dean of Regent University Law School in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
- ↑ Beasley was appointed chief justice of the court.
- ↑ Wyrick was confirmed to a seat on the Western District of Oklahoma on April 9, 2019.
- ↑ Bales left the court to become executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver.
- ↑ Brown was confirmed to a seat on the Southern District of Texas on July 31, 2019.
- ↑ Luck was confirmed to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on November 19, 2019.
- ↑ Lagoa was confirmed to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on November 20, 2019.
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Federal courts:
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Kentucky, Western District of Kentucky • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Kentucky, Western District of Kentucky
State courts:
Kentucky Supreme Court • Kentucky Court of Appeals • Kentucky Circuit Courts • Kentucky District Courts • Kentucky Family Court
State resources:
Courts in Kentucky • Kentucky judicial elections • Judicial selection in Kentucky
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