Washington Supreme Court

The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the state judiciary of the American state of Washington. It has nine members, a chief justice and eight associate justices, who are elected to six-year terms in nonpartisan elections with a top-two primary, three seats at a time in even-numbered years. A vacancy is filled by gubernatorial appointment, and the appointee must stand at the next election. The chief justice is chosen by the justices by secret ballot for four years, a method that replaced a rotation system in 1997, and justices must retire at the end of the year they turn 75. The court meets in the Temple of Justice on the Capitol campus in Olympia. A 2007 study by the Supreme Court of California found that other state appellate courts followed its decisions more than any but California in the period from 1940 to 2005. Notable cases include State v. Gunwall on state constitutional analysis, McCleary v. Washington on school funding and State v. Blake on drug possession.