Scott Rowland
2017 - Present
2030
8
Scott Rowland is a judge for District 4 of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. He assumed office in 2017. His current term ends on January 13, 2030.
Rowland ran for re-election for the District 4 judge of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. He won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.
Rowland was appointed to the Court of Criminal Appeals by Governor Mary Fallin (R) on November 7, 2017, to succeed former Judge Arlene Johnson.[1] 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.[2] Rowland received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Rowland began serving as presiding judge in 2021.[4]
Biography
Rowland received his bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma and his J.D. from the Oklahoma City University School of Law.[1] He served as the first assistant district attorney in Oklahoma County from 2007 to 2017. He also served as general counsel to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control from 1996 to 2006 and as assistant attorney general for the state of Oklahoma from 1994 to 1996.[5] He became an adjunct instructor of criminal and constitutional law at Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City in 1998.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Oklahoma Supreme Court elections, 2024
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals District 4
Scott Rowland was retained to District 4 of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on November 5, 2024 with 63.7% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
63.7
|
889,180 | ||
No |
36.3
|
506,530 | |||
Total Votes |
1,395,710 | ||||
|
|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Rowland in this election.
2018
- See also: Oklahoma Supreme Court elections, 2018
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals District 4
Scott Rowland was retained to District 4 of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on November 6, 2018 with 62.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
62.3
|
634,039 | ||
No |
37.7
|
383,100 | |||
Total Votes |
1,017,139 | ||||
|
|
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Scott Rowland 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.[6]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- 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.
Scott
Rowland
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:
Rowland was a registered Republican as of 2020. He was appointed by Gov. Mary Fallin (R) in 2017 while the state of Oklahoma was a Republican trifecta. He has donated $250 to Democratic candidates.
Court of Criminal Appeals judicial selection in Oklahoma
- See also: Judicial selection in Oklahoma
The five judges of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals are selected through the assisted appointment method. Each judge is appointed by the governor from a list of three names compiled by the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission.[8][9]
The appointed judge 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.[8][10]
Qualifications
To serve on the court, a judge 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 (or have five years of service as a judge of a court of record).[8]
Presiding judge
The presiding judge of the court is selected by peer vote, serving in that capacity for two years.[8]
Vacancies
If a judge 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.[11] The appointed judge 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.[8][10]
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.[8][9]
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.[8][10]
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).[8]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by peer vote, serving in that capacity for two years.[8]
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.[11] 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.[8][10]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 OK.gov, "Gov. Fallin Names Scott Rowland to Court of Criminal Appeals," November 7, 2017
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, "Scott Rowland - Presiding judge," accessed January 25, 2022
- ↑ Scott Rowland: LinkedIn, "Experience," accessed July 2, 2021
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Oklahoma," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Oklahoma State Courts Network, "Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Justia, "Section VII-B-5," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Oklahoma Public Research System, "Section VII-B-4: Vacancy in Judicial Office - Filling," accessed September 22, 2021
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals District 4 2017-Present |
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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