How Washington State Justice Richard B. Sanders Lost It

November 11, 2010

Posted by Eli Sanders on thestranger.com:

"Yesterday I called the race for State Supreme Court Position No. 6 in favor of challenger Charlie Wiggins, and said I'd explain this morning what I think happened in this intense, down-to-the-wire contest. Here goes.

 

"First, though, a step back for some perspective: Nationally, the dominant story about state supreme court races this election cycle has concerned the removal by Iowa voters of three state supreme court justices who backed the freedom to marry in that state. Here, the result in this high court fight cut in the opposite direction—something that should probably be noticed beyond Washington State as the meaning of these mid-term elections is digested.

 

"Here in Washington, in a year that saw a conservative resurgence elsewhere, voters held on to Democratic Senator Patty Murray and ousted a sitting state supreme court justice, Richard B. Sanders, who in 2006 sided with the conservative wing of our state court by ruling that Washington's ban on marriage equality is justified, and should continue, because of 'the unique and binary biological nature of marriage and its exclusive link with procreation and responsible child rearing.' He was, by his campaign's own description, 'the deciding vote' in that case.

 

"Justice Sanders's marriage equality ruling wasn't the only issue in this race, of course. But it was a big issue here in liberal, gay-friendly King County, where more than 58-percent of voters have backed Wiggins in returns so far. If not for the large pro-Wiggins margin in King County, Justice Sanders, who at present is down by just 3,603 votes, would be headed for six more years on the high court.

 

... "I wonder, though, whether Justice Sanders knew this was likely to be the case—that liberal King County could easily determine his fate...

 

"We'll probably never know for sure, and in the end it doesn't matter.

 

"What matters is what a majority of voters saw: A state supreme court judge who, after 15 years on the high court, had so offended their sense of justice that they simply didn't want him on the bench anymore."