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Patricia DeVaney
2019 - Present
2031
6
Patricia DeVaney is a judge of the South Dakota Supreme Court District 3. She assumed office on May 24, 2019. Her current term ends on January 7, 2031.
DeVaney ran for re-election for judge of the South Dakota Supreme Court District 3. She won in the retention election on November 8, 2022.
DeVaney was appointed to the court by Governor Kristi Noem (R) on April 4, 2019. DeVaney succeeded Justice Steven Zinter, who died on October 30, 2018.[1][2] DeVaney was Noem's first appointment to the five-member court. To learn more about this appointment, 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] DeVaney received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
DeVaney graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Dakota in 1990. She earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia.[1] DeVaney was a judge for the South Dakota Sixth Judicial Circuit from 2012 to 2019. Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) appointed DeVaney in February 2012 to succeed Lori Wilbur, who was elevated to the South Dakota Supreme Court.[5] She served in the South Dakota Attorney General's office from 1993 to 2012.[5]
Elections
2022
See also: South Dakota Supreme Court elections, 2022
South Dakota Supreme Court District 3, Patricia DeVaney's seat
Patricia DeVaney was retained to the South Dakota Supreme Court District 3 on November 8, 2022 with 80.1% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
80.1
|
230,126 | ||
No |
19.9
|
57,052 | |||
Total Votes |
287,178 | ||||
|
|
2014
- See also: South Dakota judicial elections, 2014
DeVaney ran for re-election to the Sixth Judicial Circuit. She was unopposed in the general election on November 4, 2014.[6]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Patricia DeVaney did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Appointments
2018
Governor Kristi Noem (R) appointed Patricia DeVaney to the South Dakota Supreme Court on April 4, 2019. Noem selected DeVaney to succeed Justice Steven Zinter, who died on October 30, 2018.[1][2] DeVaney was Noem's first appointment to the five-member court.
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.[7]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[8]
- 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.
Patricia
DeVaney
South Dakota
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican as of 2020
- Held political office as a Republican
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
DeVaney held political office as a Republican. She has donated money to Republican candidates. She was a registered Republican at the time of this study.
State supreme court judicial selection in South Dakota
- See also: Judicial selection in South Dakota
The five justices of the South Dakota Supreme Court are appointed by the governor from a list of at least two names provided by the South Dakota Judicial Qualifications Commission.[9] The commission is made up of seven members: two circuit court judges, three lawyers, and two members of the public. The judges are elected by the judicial conference, the lawyers are chosen by the state bar association, and the members of the public are appointed by the governor.[10]
Newly appointed judges serve for at least three years, after which they must run in a yes-no retention election during a regularly scheduled general election. Subsequent terms last eight years.[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is chosen by peer vote and serves in that capacity for four years.[11]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. citizen;
- a resident of South Dakota;
- a voting resident within his or her respective district;
- licensed to practice law in the state; and
- under the age of 70.*[11][12][13]
Vacancies
If a judge retires before the end of his or her term, a judicial nominating commission recommends candidates to the governor, and the governor selects a successor from that list. The new appointee serves for at least three years before running in a yes-no retention election.[11]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 South Dakota State News, "Noem Appoints Supreme Court Justice," April 4, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Office of Gov. Dennis Daugaard, "Governor Daugaard Orders Flags Half-Staff In Honor Of Supreme Court Justice Steven L. Zinter," October 30, 2018
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Press Release, "Gov. Daugaard names Patricia DeVaney as Sixth Circuit judge," archived March 16, 2012
- ↑ South Dakota Secretary of State, "Current candidates for primary election - 6/3/2014," updated May 6, 2014, accessed May 8, 2014pg. 62
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ South Dakota Secretary of State, "Judicial System," accessed April 15, 2025
- ↑ South Dakota Unified Judicial System, "Judicial Qualifications Commission," accessed April 15, 2025
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: South Dakota," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Under the South Dakota code, a supreme court justice who turns seventy while in office must be "automatically retired on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of January next after the general election at which members of the Legislature are elected."
- ↑ Justia US Law, "Section 16-1-4.1: Mandatory retirement of justices at age seventy—Conclusion of pending matters," accessed September 10, 2014
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of South Dakota • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of South Dakota
State courts:
South Dakota Supreme Court • South Dakota Circuit Courts • South Dakota Magistrate Courts
State resources:
Courts in South Dakota • South Dakota judicial elections • Judicial selection in South Dakota
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