Shannon Bacon
2019 - Present
2026
6
Shannon Bacon (Democratic Party) is a judge of the New Mexico Supreme Court. She assumed office on February 4, 2019. Her current term ends on December 31, 2026.
Bacon (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for judge of the New Mexico Supreme Court. She won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Bacon was first appointed to the New Mexico Supreme Court on January 25, 2019, by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D).[1] To learn more about this appointment, click here.
Bacon was elected by her peers as chief justice and was sworn in on April 13, 2022. Her term as chief justice expired in April 2024.[2]
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] Bacon received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Bacon previously served as a district court judge in the Second Judicial District of New Mexico from 2010 to 2019. Gov. Bill Richardson (D) appointed her to the position in April 2010 to replace retired Judge Geraldine E. Rivera. Bacon was then elected to the court in November 2010 and retained in 2014.[5][6]
Biography
Bacon received her bachelor's degree in 1993 and J.D. in 1997 from Creighton University.[7]
After graduating from law school, Bacon worked as a law clerk for A. Joseph Alarid of the New Mexico Court of Appeals for two years. She worked at Eaves, Bardacke, Baugh, Kierst & Larson, where she became a partner, from 1999 to 2005.[8]
From 2005 to 2020, she was a shareholder at Thayer & Browne P.A.[8]
Elections
2020
See also: New Mexico Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for New Mexico Supreme Court
Incumbent Shannon Bacon defeated Ned S. Fuller in the general election for New Mexico Supreme Court on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Shannon Bacon (D) | 55.7 | 495,759 |
 | Ned S. Fuller (R) | 44.3 | 394,595 | |
| Total votes: 890,354 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for New Mexico Supreme Court
Incumbent Shannon Bacon advanced from the Democratic primary for New Mexico Supreme Court on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Shannon Bacon | 100.0 | 204,196 |
| Total votes: 204,196 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for New Mexico Supreme Court
Ned S. Fuller advanced from the Republican primary for New Mexico Supreme Court on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ned S. Fuller | 100.0 | 133,706 |
| Total votes: 133,706 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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2014
- See also: New Mexico judicial elections, 2014
Bacon was retained to the Second Judicial District of New Mexico with 74% of the vote on November 4, 2014.[9]
2010
- See also: New Mexico judicial elections, 2010
Bacon was elected to the Second Judicial District of New Mexico in 2010. She defeated opponent Lori L. Millet in the Democratic primary and ran unopposed in the general election.[10]
Appointments
2019
New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Charles Daniels retired on December 31, 2018.[11] Under New Mexico law, vacancies are filled through a merit selection nominating system.[11] Shannon Bacon, Daniels' replacement on the five-member court, was appointed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) on January 25, 2019.
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.[12]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[13]
- 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.
Shannon
Bacon
New Mexico
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Democrat
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Bacon was a registered Democrat. She donated less than $1,750 to Democratic candidates. She was appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) in 2019. When she was appointed to the state supreme court, New Mexico was a Democratic trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in New Mexico
- See also: Judicial selection in New Mexico
The five justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court are chosen through partisan elections. After serving for one year, the appointed justice must win the first partisan general election after their appointment to serve the remainder of the unexpired term. Justices serve eight-year terms.[14] To serve additional terms, justices must receive at least 57% of the vote in a retention election.[14]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a person must:
- be at least 35 years old;
- have practiced law for ten years before assuming office; and
- have been a New Mexico resident for three years before assuming office.[15]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by a peer vote of the justices to serve a two-year term. The chief justice must have been elected to the court, not appointed to fill a vacancy.[16]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a justice from a list of qualified candidates recommended by a judicial nominating commission. The appointed judge will serve until the first general election held one year after their appointment. The appointee must run in that general election to serve the remainder of the unexpired term.[17]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Farmington Daily Times, "Two candidates compete for New Mexico Supreme Court seat," October 20, 2020
- ↑ Las Cruces Sun News, "C. Shannon Bacon takes over as chief justice of New Mexico Supreme Court," April 14, 2022
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Albuquerque Journal, "UPDATED: Governor Appoints New Judge in Bernalillo County," April 12, 2010
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedretention - ↑ New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, "Shannon Bacon," accessed July 30, 2021
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 emergeAmerica, "Judge Shannon Bacon," accessed July 30, 2021
- ↑ New Mexico SOS, "2014 General Election Results," accessed July 30, 2021
- ↑ New Mexico SOS, "2010 General Election Results," accessed July 30, 2021
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 New Mexico Courts, "Two Justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court not seeking retention in the general election," June 28, 2018
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 New Mexico Secretary of State, "Constitution," accessed September 2, 2021 (Article VI Section 33) Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "nmconst33" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ New Mexico Secretary of State, "Constitution," accessed September 2, 2021 (Article VI Section 8)
- ↑ NMOneSource.com, "Current New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978," accessed September 2, 2021 (Chapter 34 Article 2)
- ↑ New Mexico Secretary of State, "Constitution," accessed March 29, 2024 (Article VI Section 35)
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Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Mexico • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Mexico
State courts:
New Mexico Supreme Court • New Mexico Court of Appeals • New Mexico District Courts • New Mexico Magistrate Court • New Mexico Municipal Courts • New Mexico Probate Courts • New Mexico Problem-Solving Courts • New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration Court • Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court
State resources:
Courts in New Mexico • New Mexico judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Mexico
