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Maryland Supreme Court justice vacancy (April 2024)
| Maryland Supreme Court |
|---|
 |
| Hotten vacancy |
| Date: April 21, 2024 |
| Status: Nominee pending |
| Nomination |
| Nominee: Peter K. Killough |
| Date: July 25, 2024 |
On July 25, 2024, Governor Wes Moore (D) nominated Peter K. Killough to the Maryland Supreme Court. Killough replaced justice Michele D. Hotten, who retired on April 21, 2024, due to reaching Maryland's mandatory retirement age. Killough is Governor Moore's (D) first nominee to the seven-member supreme court.[1]
In Maryland, state supreme court justices are selected through assisted appointment with a governor-controlled judicial nominating commission. Justices are appointed by the governor with the assistance of a commission with a majority of members selected by the governor. There are 10 states that use this selection method. To read more about the assisted appointment of judges, click here.
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a judge's term. A judicial nominating commission recommends qualified candidates to the governor and the governor selects a successor from that list. The new appointee serves for at least one year and then stands for retention at the next general election.[2]
Ballotpedia has compiled the following resources on the process to fill the Maryland Supreme Court vacancy:
- An overview of the appointee.
- A list of finalists recommended to the governor.
- An overview of the selection process.
- An overview of the court following the vacancy.
- An overview of the justice who left office.
- A list of other state supreme court appointments in 2024.
The appointee
- See also: Peter K. Killough
On July 25, 2024, Governor Wes Moore (D) nominated Killough to the Maryland Supreme Court to replace outgoing Justice Michele D. Hotten.[1] Killough earned a B.A. from New York University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to his appointment to the Maryland Supreme Court, Killough served as an Associate Judge on the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County from 2018 to 2024. Killough served with the Maryland office of the Attorney General from 2009 to 2018, and also served as a senior attorney for the Ford Motor Company’s Office of General Counsel. [3]
Appointee candidates and nominations
Finalists
On July 9, 2024, the Maryland Judicial Nominating Commission released a list of four finalists that had applied to fill the Maryland Supreme Court vacancy. The finalists are as follows:[4]
- Maryland Seventh Circuit court associate judge Krystal Q. Alves
- Maryland Seventh Circuit court associate judge Tiffany H. Anderson
- Maryland Seventh Circuit court associate judge Peter K. Killough
- Maryland Seventh Circuit court associate judge William Snoddy[5]
The selection process
- See also: Judicial selection in Maryland
In Maryland, state supreme court justices are selected through assisted appointment with a governor-controlled judicial nominating commission. Justices are appointed by the governor with the assistance of a commission with a majority of members selected by the governor. There are 10 states that use this selection method. To read more about the assisted appointment of judges, click here.
Makeup of the court
- See also: Maryland Supreme Court
Justices
Following Hotten's retirement, the Maryland Supreme Court included the following members:
| ■ Brynja McDivitt Booth | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2019, and retained in 2020 | |
| ■ Angela M. Eaves | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2022 | |
| ■ Matthew Fader | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2017, and retained in 2018 | |
| ■ Jonathan Biran | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2019, and retained in 2020 | |
| ■ Shirley Marie Watts | Appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) in 2013, and retained in 2014 | |
| ■ Steven Gould | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2021, and retained in 2022 |
About the court
Founded in 1776, the Maryland Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort and has seven judgeships. The current chief justice of the court is Matthew Fader.
The court's name changed from the Maryland Court of Appeals to the Maryland Supreme Court, following a ballot initiative that voters approved in November 2022.[6]
As of August 2024, two judges on the court were appointed by a Democratic governor and five judges were appointed by a Republican governor.
The Maryland Supreme Court meets in the Robert C. Murphy Courts of Appeal Building in Annapolis, Maryland. The court's term begins in September and ends in June of each year.[7]
About Justice Hotten
- See also: Michele D. Hotten
Hotten received her B.A. in political science from the University of South Florida in 1975 and her J.D. from the Howard University School of Law in 1979. She served as deputy people's zoning counsel for Prince George's County. Before that, she was a hearing examiner for the Prince George's County Board of Education. Hotten spent a year as a judge on the Fifth District Court before joining the Seventh Circuit Court.[8]
Hotten was appointed to Maryland Court of Special Appeals, later renamed the Appellate Court of Maryland, Maryland's intermediate appellate court, by Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley on July 23, 2010, to fill the vacancy left by James Salmon.[9] She was appointed to the Maryland Court of Appeals on December 1, 2015, by Republican Governor Larry Hogan and sworn in on December 22. Hotten filled the seat left vacant when Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr. retired from the court after reaching Maryland's mandatory retirement age. Hotten is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association and the Maryland State Bar Association, and was awarded the Gertrude E. Rush Award by the National Bar Association in 2014.
Other state supreme court appointments in 2024
- See also: State supreme court vacancies, 2024
The following table lists vacancies on state supreme courts that opened in 2024. Click the link under the Court column for a particular vacancy for more information on that vacancy.
Click here for vacancies that opened in 2023.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Maryland Matters, "Moore nominates first state Supreme Court justice," July 25, 2024
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Maryland," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ The Office of Governor Wes Moore, "Governor Moore Appoints Hon. Peter K. Killough to the Supreme Court of Maryland," July 25, 2024
- ↑ Note: Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
- ↑ Maryland Courts, "Supreme Court of Maryland (Fourth Appellate Judicial Circuit - Prince George's County)," accessed July 12, 2024
- ↑ CBS Baltimore, "The Court of Appeals of Maryland is now the Supreme Court of Maryland," December 14, 2022
- ↑ Maryland Courts, "Court of Appeals," accessed August 17, 2021
- ↑ The Washington Post, "O'Malley swears in new appeals judge," August 17, 2010
- ↑ Maryland Manual On-line, "Michele D. Hotten," accessed August 9, 2016
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Federal courts:
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Maryland • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Maryland
State courts:
Maryland Supreme Court • Appellate Court of Maryland • Maryland District Courts • Maryland Circuit Courts • Maryland Orphans' Court
State resources:
Courts in Maryland • Maryland judicial elections • Judicial selection in Maryland
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