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Noma D. Gurich
2011 - Present
2030
14
Noma D. Gurich is a judge for District 3 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. She assumed office on February 15, 2011. Her current term ends on January 13, 2030.
Gurich ran for re-election for the District 3 judge of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.
Gurich was elected by her peers as chief justice of the court for a two-year term on January 1, 2019.[1]
Gurich first became a member of the court through a gubernatorial appointment. She was appointed to the court by Gov. Brad Henry (D) on January 7, 2011, to succeed the late Justice Marian Opala.[2] To read more about judicial selection in Oklahoma, 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.[3] Gurich received a confidence score of Indeterminate.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Gurich received her undergraduate degree from Indiana State University in 1975 and her J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1978.[5][2] She was an associate with Cheek, Cheek & Cheek from 1978 to 1982, and a partner with Abowitz & Welch from 1982 to 1988. From 1988 to 1998 Gurich was a judge on the Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court, and from 1998 to 2011 she was a judge for Oklahoma's Seventh District. She became a justice on the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2011, and her term as Chief Justice began in 2019.[2] Gurich was named a Distinguished Alumni of Indiana State University in 2012.[2] She was a director and delegate of the Oklahoma County Bar Association, and a fellow of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation.[2]
Elections
2024
See also: Oklahoma Supreme Court elections, 2024
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 3
Noma D. Gurich was retained to District 3 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court on November 5, 2024 with 50.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
50.3
|
725,064 | ||
No |
49.7
|
717,360 | |||
Total Votes |
1,442,424 | ||||
|
|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Gurich in this election.
2018
- See also: Oklahoma Supreme Court elections, 2018
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 3
Noma D. Gurich was retained to District 3 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court on November 6, 2018 with 61.6% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
61.6
|
631,733 | ||
No |
38.4
|
394,373 | |||
Total Votes |
1,026,106 | ||||
|
|
2012
- See also: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2012
Gurich was retained with 66.5% of the vote in the general election on November 6th.[6][7][8]
2010
- See also: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2010
Gurich was re-elected to the district court after running unopposed in the November 2010 general election.[9]
Prior elections
Gurich was first appointed to the District Court by Governor Frank Keating in 1998. After winning a contested election in November of 1998, she was re-elected in 2002 and 2006 without opposition. She served as Presiding Judge of the District Court for 2 years.[10]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Noma D. Gurich did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Ballotpedia currently provides campaign finance data for all federal- and state-level candidates from 2020 and later. We are continuously working to expand our data to include prior elections. That information will be published here as we acquire it. If you would like to help us provide this data, please consider donating to Ballotpedia.
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.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- 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.
Noma
Gurich
Oklahoma
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Indeterminate - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Gurich was appointed by Gov. Brad Henry (D) in 2011.
Other Scores:
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.
Gurich received a campaign finance score of 0.26, indicating a conservative ideological leaning. This was less conservative than the average score of 0.33 that justices received in Oklahoma.
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.[13]
State supreme court judicial selection in Oklahoma
- See also: Judicial selection in Oklahoma
The nine justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. Each justice is appointed by the governor from a list of three names compiled by the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission.[14][15]
The appointed justice serves an initial term of at least one year, after which they must stand for retention during the next general election. Subsequent terms last six years.[14][16]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:
- at least 30 years old;
- a qualified voter in his or her respective district for at least one year; and
- licensed to practice for at least five years in the state (or have five years of service as a judge of a court of record).[14]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by peer vote, serving in that capacity for two years.[14]
Vacancies
If a justice retires before the end of his or her term, the vacancy is filled just as it normally would be, with the governor appointing a successor from a list of names provided by the nominating commission. If the appointment is not made within 60 days of the vacancy, the chief justice is responsible for selecting a replacement.[17] The appointed justice then must stand for retention in the next general election after he or she has served one year on the bench to serve out the remainder of his or her predecessor's term.[14][16]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Oklahoman, "Oklahoma Supreme Court elects new chief, vice chief," November 15, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Oklahoma Supreme Court "Noma Gurich" Biography," accessed July 5, 2021
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Martindale.com, "Noma Diane Gurich," accessed July 5, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma State Election Board, "Official 2012 General Election Results," archived April 19, 2016
- ↑ News OK, "Voters retain Oklahoma's Supreme Court justices, appeals judges," archived April 18, 2016
- ↑ Oklahoma.gov, "Candidates for General Election," archived April 18, 2016 Scroll to p.13
- ↑ Oklahoma State Board of Elections, "Candidates for State Elective Office 2010," archived April 18, 2016
- ↑ Oklahoma Government, "Candidates unopposed at the General Election," archived April 19, 2016
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Oklahoma," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma State Courts Network, "Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Justia, "Section VII-B-5," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma Public Research System, "Section VII-B-4: Vacancy in Judicial Office - Filling," accessed September 22, 2021
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 3 2011-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| Preceded by - |
Oklahoma Judicial District 7 |
Succeeded by - |
Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Oklahoma, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Oklahoma • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Oklahoma, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Oklahoma
State courts:
Oklahoma Supreme Court • Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals • Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals • Oklahoma District Courts • Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court of Existing Claims
State resources:
Courts in Oklahoma • Oklahoma judicial elections • Judicial selection in Oklahoma
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