Mary Yu
2014 - Present
2029
11
Mary Yu is a judge for Position 1 of the Washington Supreme Court. She assumed office on May 20, 2014. Her current term ends on January 7, 2029.
Yu ran for re-election for the Position 1 judge of the Washington Supreme Court. She won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Yu first became a member of the Washington Supreme Court when she was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on May 1, 2014, to succeed James Johnson. She became the first Asian-American, the first Latina, and first openly gay supreme court justice in the state. To read more about judicial selection in Washington, click here.[1][2][3][4]
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] Yu received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[6] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Yu received her undergraduate degree in religious studies from Dominican University. She holds a master's in theology from Loyola University and a J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.[7]
Yu began her career at the Archdiocese of Chicago, where she worked in the Office for the Ministry of Peace and Justice, first as an associate and then as the director. She later served as the deputy chief of staff for the King County Prosecutor’s Office. On March 2, 2000, she was appointed to the King County Superior Court by former Governor Gary Locke (D), effective the following April 1, to replace Janice Niemi.[2][8]
In 2011, she was awarded the Outstanding Judge of the Year Award by the Washington State Bar Association.[2]
Elections
The section below details Yu's judicial appointments and elections throughout her career.
2022
See also: Washington Supreme Court elections, 2022
General election
General election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 1
Incumbent Mary Yu won election in the general election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 1 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mary Yu (Nonpartisan) | 97.4 | 1,961,152 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 2.6 | 52,447 | ||
| Total votes: 2,013,599 | |||
 = 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. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
The primary election was canceled. Incumbent Mary Yu advanced from the primary for Washington State Supreme Court Position 1.
2016
Justice Yu filed to run for re-election in 2016. She faced former Gonzaga law professor David DeWolf on November 8.[9]
Election results
| Washington Supreme Court, Position 1, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Mary Yu Incumbent |
57.33% | 1,577,495 |
| David DeWolf | 42.67% | 1,174,263 |
| Total Votes (100% reporting) | 2,751,758 | |
| Source: Washington Secretary of State Official Results | ||
Race background
The 2016 election was the first since the 1990s in which all three state supreme court justices up for re-election faced opponents.[10] At least one justice in every election typically runs unopposed, but this year all three incumbents drew challengers. Republican state Representative Matt Manweller said he and other lawmakers actively recruited candidates to run against the justices.[10] This was partly because of the court's decisions in the long-running school funding case McCleary v. Washington, over which the court drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for holding the state in contempt of court, and in a separate case about the state funding of charter schools.
Those in favor of replacing the justices said the court has overstepped its boundaries into legislation and policymaking and failed to respect the autonomy of the state legislature.[10] In the McCleary school funding case, the court both found the state government in contempt and fined the state $100,000 per day until the state complied with the court's orders.[11][12]
In a separate case, the court ruled unconstitutional the state funding of charter schools right before those schools were set to open in 2015.
Satellite spending
The political action committee arm of the group Stand for Children spent $116,000 promoting the campaign of Greg Zempel, who challenged Chief Justice Barbara Madsen for her seat on the court.[13] Madsen authored the court's 2015 decision declaring Washington's charter schools, in their form at that time, unconstitutional. The legislature passed a new bill in 2016 that allowed charter schools to continue; opponents threatened to sue over this law as well.[13] Stand for Children's spending on Zempel's campaign was funded by several of the backers of charter schools who were opposed to the court's 2015 decision. The primary donors include Connie Ballmer, wife of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer; Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix; and Vulcan Inc., owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Vulcan and Ballmer were also among the primary backers of the ballot initiative that paved the way for the charter schools.[13]
Endorsements
- All of the following endorsements are listed on Justice Yu's campaign website.
|
|
Campaign finance
| Mary Yu Campaign Finance, 2016 | |||
| Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | Debt |
|---|---|---|---|
| $272,534 | $133,242 | $139,292 | $11,204 |
| Source: | Washington Public Disclosure Commission | ||
2014
Re-election to supreme court
See also: Washington judicial elections, 2014
Yu ran for re-election to the Washington Supreme Court to finish the two-year remainder of her predecessor's unexpired term.
General: She was unopposed in the general election on November 4, 2014.
[14]
Appointment to supreme court
Yu first became a member of the Washington Supreme Court when she was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on May 1, 2014, to succeed James Johnson.[2]
Governor Inslee, announcing his first appointment to the high court, stated:
| “ | Judge Yu has distinguished herself throughout her career as someone of great intellect, dedication and compassion.[15] | ” |
| —Gov. Jay Inslee[2] | ||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Mary Yu 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.[16]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[17]
- 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
Yu
Washington
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Received donations from Democrat-affiliated individuals or organizations
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
- Endorsed by Democratic-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
In 2014, Yu was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) to fill a vacancy on the Washington Supreme Court. She received $1,400 from Seattle Gay News, $250 from NARAL Pro-Choice Washington State, and $200 from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, all of which donate to Democratic candidates more frequently than Republicans. Planned Parenthood contributed to her campaign in the form of satellite spending. She was endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, National Women’s Political Caucus of WA, Northwest WA Central Labor Council, Washington Conservation Voters, and Washington Education Association, all of which regularly endorse Democratic candidates.
State supreme court judicial selection in Washington
- See also: Judicial selection in Washington
The nine justices of the supreme court are selected through contested nonpartisan elections and must run for re-election when their terms expire. Supreme court judges serve for six years.[18]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must be:
- admitted to practice law in Washington; and
- under the age of 75.[19]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected through a peer vote and has a set term of four years.[20]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement. The appointee serves until the next general election, at which point he or she may run to serve for the remainder of the predecessor's term.[21] If the resignation and subsequent appointment takes place after the filing period opens for that year's elections, the appointee must stand in the next year's election to remain on the bench.[22]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Washington State Supreme Court Position 1 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ KPLU.org, "Washington's First Openly-Gay Supreme Court Justice Sworn Into Office," May 20, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Governor Jay Inslee, "Gov Inslee appoints Judge Mary Yu to the Washington State Supreme Court," May 1, 2014
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2014 General Election Offices Open for Election," archived October 21, 2014
- ↑ Seattle PI, "Mary Yu appointed to state Supreme Court," May 1, 2014
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Washington Courts, "Justice Mary Yu," accessed May 23, 2016
- ↑ Washington Archives - Governor Gary Locke, "Judicial appointments," accessed May 2, 2014
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2016 Candidates Who Have Filed," accessed May 23, 2016
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 The News Tribune, "Controversial school-funding rulings prompt crowded Supreme Court races," June 3, 2016
- ↑ The Seattle Times, "Contempt ruling ups ante in fight to fund public schools," September 12, 2014
- ↑ The Seattle Times, "School funding back on table as court fines state $100,000 a day," August 13, 2015
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 The News Tribune, "Charter-school backers spending $116,000 to try to unseat state Supreme Court justice," July 28, 2016
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2014 Candidates Who Have Filed," accessed May 22, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, Methods of Judicial Selection: Washington," accessed April 16, 2025
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, Methods of Judicial Selection: Washington," accessed April 16, 2025
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, Methods of Judicial Selection: Washington," accessed April 16, 2025
- ↑ Washington State Legislature, "Washington State Constitution," accessed April 16, 2025 (Scroll to Article IV, Section 3)
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, Methods of Judicial Selection: Washington," accessed April 16, 2025
| ||||||||||
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington
State courts:
Washington Supreme Court • Washington Court of Appeals • Washington Superior Court • Washington District Courts • Washington Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Washington • Washington judicial elections • Judicial selection in Washington
