State supreme court vacancies, 2025
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Ballotpedia covers vacancies in 52 state supreme courts in the 50 states that have at least one court of last resort. Only Texas and Oklahoma have two courts of last resort, one for civil appeals and one for criminal appeals.
A vacancy occurs when a justice steps down from their seat before their term is regularly scheduled to end. A vacancy may occur due to a retirement, death, elevation to a federal court, ascension to the chief justice position, or any other reason that may cause them to not complete the remainder of their regularly scheduled term. After the announcement that a justice will step down, partial-term selection methods begin to fill the remainder of their term. To learn more about how Ballotpedia defines a vacancy, click here.
Judicial vacancies covered on this page are filled in one of five ways: the governor alone appoints justices, a nominating commission provides the governor a list of potential nominees, the state legislature selects supreme court justices, the state supreme court votes on and appoints justices, or the justice is elected in a special election (both nonpartisan and partisan). Michigan is the only state that uses the Michigan method, where state parties hold nomination conventions to select which candidates will run in a nonpartisan general election. To learn more about judicial selection methods, click here.
- Methodology
- 2025 vacancies
- Selection methods
- Monthly updates
Methodology
Ballotpedia counts a seat as vacant if the outgoing officeholder leaves office before their official term-end date or the incoming officeholder takes office after their official term-start date. If an officeholder takes or leaves office according to their official term-start or -end date, Ballotpedia does not count that as a vacant seat.
2025 vacancies
In 2025, there have been 20 vacancies across 16 states. Of the 20 vacancies, all have occurred in states where the replacement justice will be appointed, not elected. Of the 20 vacancies, 16 vacancies have been caused by a justice retiring. Two vacancies have been caused by a justice ascending to the chief justice of the court. One vacancy has been caused by a judge being elected to another seat on the same court. Finally, one was caused by a justice passing away.
The following table contains a comprehensive list of the vacancies that Ballotpedia is covering this year. For a list of states where a regularly scheduled election will occur in 2025, click here.
Below is a table of announced 2025 state supreme court vacancies. The table shows the court in which the vacancy occurred, the date the outgoing justice left office, the reason for the vacancy, and the court's method of selection. When available, the table will show the name of the successor and the date they were appointed or elected to the court. The final two columns will say ‘TBD’ until the successor has been named.
| Court | Vacancy date | Outgoing justice | Vacancy Reason | Selection method | Date vacancy filled | Successor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas Supreme Court | January 1, 2025 | Karen R. Baker | Ascension | Governor appointment | December 20, 2024 | Nicholas Bronni |
| Arkansas Supreme Court | January 1, 2025 | Courtney Rae Hudson | Elected to another seat | Governor appointment | December 20, 2024 | Cody Hiland |
| Texas Supreme Court | January 6, 2025 | Jimmy Blacklock | Ascension | Governor appointment | January 6, 2025 | James Sullivan |
| Alaska Supreme Court | January 13, 2025 | Peter J. Maassen | Retired | Assisted appointment | November 27, 2024 | Aimee Oravec |
| Georgia Supreme Court | March 31, 2025 | Michael P. Boggs | Retired | Assisted appointment | July 17, 2025 | Ben Land |
| Michigan Supreme Court | April 14, 2025 | Elizabeth Clement | Retired | Governor appointment | April 23, 2025 | Noah Hood |
| Alabama Supreme Court | May 19, 2025 | Jay Mitchell | Retired | Governor appointment | May 20, 2025 | Bill Lewis |
| Wyoming Supreme Court | May 27, 2025 | Kate M. Fox | Retired | Assisted appointment | April 11, 2025 | Bridget Hill |
| Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia | June 27, 2025 | Beth Walker | Retired | Assisted appointment | August 6, 2025 | Tom Ewing |
| Kansas Supreme Court | July 4, 2025 | Evelyn Z. Wilson | Retired | Assisted appointment | August 7, 2025 | Larkin Walsh |
| Vermont Supreme Court | August 23, 2025 | Karen R. Carroll | Retired | Assisted appointment | TBD | TBD |
| Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia | August 26, 2025 | Tim Armstead | Died | Assisted appointment | TBD | TBD |
| New Hampshire Supreme Court | August 31, 2025 | James Bassett | Retired | Assisted appointment | August 26, 2025 | Bryan Gould |
| Texas Supreme Court | September 1, 2025 | Jeffrey S. Boyd | Retired | Governor appointment | TBD | TBD |
| Hawaii Supreme Court | September 30, 2025 | Mark Recktenwald | Retired | Assisted appointment | TBD | TBD |
| Nebraska Supreme Court | October 31, 2025 | Lindsey Miller-Lerman | Retired | Assisted appointment | TBD | TBD |
| Utah Supreme Court | December 1, 2025 | John A. Pearce | Retired | Assisted appointment | TBD | TBD |
| South Dakota Supreme Court | December 8, 2025 | Janine M. Kern | Retired | Assisted appointment | TBD | TBD |
| Vermont Supreme Court | December 2025[1] | William Cohen | Retired | Assisted appointment | TBD | TBD |
| Washington State Supreme Court | December 31, 2025 | Mary Yu | Retired | Gubernatorial appointment | TBD | TBD |
Selection methods
Click the tabs below to see the various selection methods for state supreme court justices:
- See also: Judicial selection in the states
The map below shows how each state fills full-term vacancies. When a justice vacates their seat near the end of their term, or when a justice serving an unexpired term finishes their term, the following selection methods are used. In states with retention elections, following the conclusion of a justice's first full term, the justice may choose to run in a retention election.
The map below highlights selection methods in state supreme courts across the country.
Monthly updates
Since April 2024, Ballotpedia has tracked all state supreme court vacancy actions and publishes this information in a monthly update with a compilation of all changes that occur during that month. Notice a monthly update that's missing something? Click here to let us know.
Click the dropdown below to view monthly updates from 2025:
See also
Use the dropdown menu below to navigate to Ballotpedia's coverage of state supreme court vacancies in other years.
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: As of August 12, 2025, Cohen has not announced his official retirement date.
- ↑ Note: Mitchell first joined the court after a 2018 partisan election win, where he was registered as a Republican.
- ↑ Note: Baker was first elected in a nonpartisan election. Her successor will be chosen by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
- ↑ Note: Hudson was first elected in a nonpartisan election. Her successor will be chosen by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
- ↑ Note: Walker was first elected in a nonpartisan election. Her successor will be chosen by Republican Governor Patrick Morrisey.
