Your monthly support provides voters the knowledge they need to make confident decisions at the polls. Donate today.
Mary Rhodes Russell (Missouri)
2004 - Present
2030
21
Mary Rhodes Russell is a judge of the Missouri Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2004. Her current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Rhodes Russell ran for re-election for judge of the Missouri Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 6, 2018.
Russell was chosen by her peers as the court's chief justice, commencing her term on July 1, 2023, and serving as chief justice until June 30, 2025.[1][2] She previously served as the court's chief justice from July 2013 to June 2015. Prior to joining the court, she served on the Missouri Court of Appeals from 1995 to 2004.[3]
Rhodes Russell first became a member of the Missouri Supreme Court through a gubernatorial appointment. She was first appointed to the court in September 2004 by Gov. Bob Holden (D).[4] To read more about judicial selection in Missouri, 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.[5] Rhodes Russell received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[6] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Rhodes Russell earned her B.A. and B.S. in communications and print media from Truman State University in 1980. She received her J.D. from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1983.[7] Before becoming a judge, she worked in private practice. Rhodes Russell clerked for Justice George Gunn.[3]
Elections
2018
- See also: Missouri Supreme Court elections, 2018
Missouri Supreme Court
Mary Rhodes Russell was retained to the Missouri Supreme Court on November 6, 2018 with 71.9% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
71.9
|
1,472,819 | ||
No |
28.1
|
574,502 | |||
Total Votes |
2,047,321 | ||||
|
|
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.
Mary
Rhodes Russell
Missouri
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
- State was a Democratic trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Russell was appointed by Gov. Bob Holden (D). At the time of her appointment, Missouri was a Democratic trifecta.
Other Scores:
In a 2012 study of campaign contributions, Russell received a campaign finance score of -0.74, indicating a liberal ideological leaning.
Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Russell received a campaign finance score of -0.74, indicating a liberal ideological leaning. This was more liberal than the average score of 0.001 that justices received in Missouri.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[10]
State supreme court judicial selection in Missouri
- See also: Judicial selection in Missouri
The seven justices of the Missouri Supreme Court are chosen through assisted appointment in which the governor selects a nominee from a list provided by a nominating commission. When a vacancy occurs, a list of potential candidates is compiled by the Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission and narrowed to three choices. From those three candidates, the governor appoints a new judge. After the newly appointed judge serves for at least one year, they must stand for retention in the next general election. If retained, they serve twelve-year terms.[11]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. citizen for at least 15 years;
- a qualified state voter for at least nine years;
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- over the age of 30; and
- under the age of 70 (retirement at 70 is mandatory).[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court serves a two-year term and is elected by a peer vote.[11]
Vacancies
When a vacancy occurs, a list of potential candidates is compiled by the Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission and narrowed to three choices. From those three candidates, the governor appoints a new judge. After the newly appointed judge serves for at least one year, they must stand for retention in the next general election. If retained, they serve twelve-year terms.[11]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Missouri Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ Missouri Courts, "Judge Mary R. Russell to become Missouri's next chief justice," June 29, 2023
- ↑ The Missouri BAR, “Meet Missouri’s new chief justice: Q&A with Hon. W. Brent Powell" accessed August 11, 2025
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Missouri Courts, "Judge Mary R. Russell," accessed June 27, 2013
- ↑ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "New Mo. chief justice prepares to lead judiciary," June 27, 2013
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Project Vote Smart, "Judge Mary Rhodes Russell (MO)," accessed June 27, 2013
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed September 7, 2021
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Missouri, Western District of Missouri • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Missouri, Western District of Missouri
State courts:
Missouri Supreme Court • Missouri Court of Appeals • Missouri Circuit Courts • Missouri Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Missouri • Missouri judicial elections • Judicial selection in Missouri
