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Richard Darby
2018 - Present
2027
7
Richard Darby is a judge for District 9 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2018. His current term ends on January 10, 2027.
Darby ran for re-election for the District 9 judge of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 3, 2020.
Darby was elected chief justice of the court by his peers for a two-year term beginning on January 1, 2021.[1]
Governor Mary Fallin (R) appointed Darby to the court on April 5, 2018.[2] Darby replaced former Justice Joseph Watt, who retired at the end of 2017. 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] Darby received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Darby received a bachelor's degree in political science from Southwestern Oklahoma State University and a J.D. from the University of Oklahoma.[5] Before being appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Darby was an Oklahoma district judge for Jackson County, in Oklahoma's Third District.[6][7]
Elections
2020
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 9
Richard Darby was retained to District 9 of the Oklahoma Supreme Court on November 3, 2020 with 67.7% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
67.7
|
932,936 | ||
No |
32.3
|
445,176 | |||
Total Votes |
1,378,112 | ||||
|
|
2014
- See also: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2014
Darby ran for re-election to the 3rd District Court. As an unopposed candidate, he was automatically re-elected without appearing on the ballot. [7]
2010
- See also: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2010
Darby was re-elected to the 3rd District Court after running unopposed.[8]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Richard Darby did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 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.[9]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[10]
- 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.
Richard
Darby
Oklahoma
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican as of 2020
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Darby was a registered Republican as of 2020. He was appointed by Gov. Mary Fallin (R) in 2018 while the state of Oklahoma was a Republican trifecta.
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.[11][12]
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.[11][13]
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).[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by peer vote, serving in that capacity for two years.[11]
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.[14] 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.[11][13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Oklahoma Supreme Court District 9 |
Footnotes
- ↑ The Lawton Constitution, "Former Altus attorney elected chief justice," December 20, 2020
- ↑ U.S. News & World Report, "Oklahoma Governor Names Judge Richard Darby to Supreme Court," April 5, 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.
- ↑ The Lawton Constitution, "Judge Darby Appointed To Supreme Court," archived July 23, 2018
- ↑ Oklahoma State Courts Network, "Jackson County and Judges," archived October 16, 2014
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Oklahoma State Election Board, "Candidates for State Elective Office 2014," archived April 18, 2016
- ↑ Oklahoma State Board of Elections, "Candidates for State Elective Office 2010," archived April 18, 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.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 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
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 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
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
