Local News

Former King County Superior Court Judge Bruce Hilyer is running for the state Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice James M. Johnson’s retirement at the end of the month. Johnson announced his retirement last month, citing health concerns. Considered the court’s most conservative member, Johnson was not due up for reelection until 2016. Gov. Jay…

James M. Johnson, who is considered the most conservative member of the state Supreme Court, will retire next month due to “recent health concerns,” the justice announced Monday. Johnson, who goes by Jim, was not up for re-election until 2016. Instead, he will leave April 30. He was re-elected without a general-election opponent in 2010. “This has been…

State Sen. Michael Baumgartner has introduced a bill that borrows language from a recent state Supreme Court ruling to mock the justices he believes have overstepped their constitutional boundaries. Senate Bill 6568 would order the court to increase the number of cases it considers annually by 50 percent by the 2017-2018 calendar and require the…

More than half of the House Republican caucus sent a letter to the state Supreme Court earlier this month rebuking the justices for threatening to hold lawmakers in contempt if they don’t put more money into education. “The court lacks the authority to hold the Legislature in contempt of its decision and we, the…

Tim Eyman proposed a new initiative on Monday that would chop billions out of the state budget unless the Legislature moves ahead with a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote to approve new taxes. The state Supreme Court ruled last year that requiring a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to raise taxes is unconstitutional…

OLYMPIA — The Washington State Supreme Court is expected to rule Thursday whether requiring a two-thirds majority for lawmakers to raise taxes is constitutional. One way or another, the ruling could affect lawmakers who are now trying to close a roughly $1 billion budget shortfall and deal with the court’s last major decision — last…

Update:  9:08 p.m. Longtime appellate attorney Sheryl Gordon McCloud defeated former state Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders for a six-year term on the state Supreme Court. McCloud was leading with 56 percent of the vote, including more than 64 percent in vote-heavy King County. Sanders served on the court for 15 years before losing his seat two years…

There has already been much debate over whether racial bias was partly responsible for the surprising vote totals racked up in the August primary by Bruce Danielson, a little known candidate for the state Supreme Court. Although he raised no money and ran no campaign, Danielson won 30 of Washington’s 39 counties and got…