Oregon Supreme Court elections, 2022
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The term of one Oregon Supreme Court justice expired on January 2, 2023. The one seat was up for nonpartisan election on November 8, 2022. A primary was scheduled for May 17, 2022.
Oregon was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and election results
Dehoog's seat
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Oregon Supreme Court Position 6
Incumbent Roger J. DeHoog won election outright in the primary for Oregon Supreme Court Position 6 on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Roger J. DeHoog (Nonpartisan) | 98.2 | 613,950 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.8 | 11,515 | ||
| Total votes: 625,465 | |||
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Justices not on the ballot
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Oregon
About the Oregon Supreme Court
- See also: Oregon Supreme Court
The Oregon Supreme Court is composed of seven justices who are elected in nonpartisan elections by voters. A full term on the court is six years. Oregon's nonpartisan judicial elections take place during its primary and general elections, both held every two years in even-numbered years.
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election.
| ■ Thomas Balmer | Appointed by Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) in 2001 | |
| ■ Rebecca Duncan | Appointed by Gov. Kate Brown (D) in 2017 | |
| ■ Meagan A. Flynn | Appointed by Gov. Kate Brown (D) in 2017 | |
| ■ Chris Garrett | Appointed by Gov. Kate Brown (D) in 2018 | |
| ■ Vacant | ||
| ■ Martha Walters | Appointed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) in 2006 | |
| ■ Roger J. DeHoog | Appointed by Gov. Kate Brown (D) in 2022 |
Selection
- See also: Judicial selection in Oregon
Judges in Oregon participate in nonpartisan elections in even-numbered years.[5]
All judicial races require a primary election except those to fill a midterm vacancy for a seat that would otherwise not have appeared on the ballot that year. In the case of such a midterm vacancy, the primary may be skipped if only one or two candidates file for that office. If there are three or more candidates running for that seat, however, they compete in the primary.
If a candidate in the primary election for a seat with a routine term ending receives more than 50 percent of the vote, he or she is elected. If not, the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election.[6]
If a candidate in the primary for a seat filled by a midterm appointment receives over 50 percent of the vote in the primary, that candidate's name appears unopposed on the general election ballot. If no candidate receives a majority, then the top two candidates advance to the general election.[6]
Oregon votes entirely by mail. Registered voters receive their ballots two to three weeks prior to the election. They must submit their ballots by mail or by dropping them into an official drop box. The deadline by which ballots must be received is 8 p.m. on the day of the election.[7]
Qualifications
Justices on the Oregon Supreme Court serve terms of six years.[8] The mandatory retirement age in Oregon is 75.[9] To be a qualified candidate to the court, a candidate must be a United States citizen, a resident of Oregon for at least three years before the election or appointment, and admitted to practice law in the Oregon Supreme Court.[10]
Removal of justices
A judge may be removed if convicted of a felony or a "crime involving moral turpitude" or for misconduct in office, a failure to perform the duties of the bench, incompetence, violation of a rule of judicial conduct, or drunkenness or abuse of drugs.[9]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 7
- Number of cases: 53
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 88.7% (47)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Balmer (10)
- Per curiam decisions: 8
- Concurring opinions: 2
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justice Duncan (1)
- Dissenting opinions: 6
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Balmer (2)
For the study's full set of findings in Oregon, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
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, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[11]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[12]
Oregon had a Court Balance Score of -8.86, indicating Democrat control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Justice Lynn Nakamoto was scheduled to stand for election; Nakamoto retired from the court on December 31, 2021. According to the state's judicial selection process, Nakamoto's replacement will serve until the next general election more than 60 days after they were appointed, at which point they must run for election in order to remain in office.
- ↑ American Judicature Society , "Methods of Judicial Selection: Oregon," accessed July 1, 2021
- ↑ Oregon Secretary of State, "Oregon Supreme Court," accessed July 1, 2021
- ↑ State of Oregon Newsroom, "Governor Kate Brown Announces Appointments to the Oregon Supreme Court and Oregon Court of Appeals," January 19, 2022
- ↑ Oregon Secretary of State, "Election Law Summary," accessed May 6, 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Oregon Legislature, "Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 249," accessed May 13, 2016
- ↑ Oregon Secretary of State, "Voting in Oregon," accessed May 6, 2014
- ↑ Oregon Judicial Department, "Oregon Supreme Court," accessed August 19, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Oregon State Legislature, "Oregon Constitution, 2015 Edition," accessed May 13, 2016
- ↑ Oregon Courts, "An Introduction to the Courts of Oregon," accessed May 13, 2016
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Oregon • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Oregon
State courts:
Oregon Supreme Court • Oregon Court of Appeals • Oregon Circuit Courts • Oregon Tax Court • Oregon County Courts • Oregon Justice Courts • Oregon Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Oregon • Oregon judicial elections • Judicial selection in Oregon
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