Maryland Supreme Court elections, 2022
| 2022 State Judicial Elections | |
|---|---|
2023 »
« 2021
| |
 | |
| Overview | |
| Supreme Courts Overview | |
| Appellate Courts Overview | |
| View judicial elections by state: | |
The term of one Maryland Court of Appeals justice expired on December 31, 2022. The seat was up for retention election on November 8, 2022.
Maryland was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and election results
Steven Gould's seat
Maryland Court of Appeals 7th Appellate Circuit (Historical), Steven Gould's seat
Steven Gould was retained to the 7th Appellate Circuit of the Appellate Court of Maryland on November 8, 2022 with 87.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
87.3
|
232,127 | ||
No |
12.7
|
33,729 | |||
Total Votes |
265,856 | ||||
|
|
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Maryland
About the Maryland Court of Appeals
- See also: Maryland Court of Appeals
The Maryland Court of Appeals is Maryland's highest court. It is composed of seven judges who are appointed by the governor of the state, confirmed by the Maryland State Senate, and must stand for retention by voters thereafter. Retention elections take place during Maryland's general elections, which are held every two years in even-numbered years.
Political composition
This was the political composition of the court heading into the 2022 election. Judges on the Maryland Court of Appeals are nonpartisan and appointed to their seats.
| ■ Chief Judge Joseph Getty | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2016 | |
| ■ Jonathan Biran | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2019 | |
| ■ Brynja McDivitt Booth | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2019 | |
| ■ Steven Gould | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2021 | |
| ■ Michele D. Hotten | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2015 | |
| ■ Angela M. Eaves | Appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2022 | |
| ■ Shirley Marie Watts | Appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) in 2013 |
Selection
- See also: Judicial selection in Maryland
Judges are appointed to serve 10-year terms by the governor of the state and must be confirmed by the Maryland Senate before taking the bench. At least one year after the vacancy occurred, the appointed judge must stand for retention by voters. In a retention election, voters are asked if a judge should be kept in office for another term; if a majority of the vote is "yes," the judge is retained. If the judge is retained, he or she will serve another 10-year term. Maryland judges must retire upon reaching age 70.[1][2]
Qualifications
Court of Appeals judges must be:
- citizens and qualified voters of Maryland;
- residents of the state for at least five years;
- residents of the appellate judicial circuit to which they are appointed for at least the prior six months;
- at least 30 years of age at the time of appointment;
- admitted to practice law in Maryland; and
- "most distinguished for integrity, wisdom and sound legal knowledge."[3]
Chief judge
The chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals is selected by the governor and serves as the administrative head of the state's judicial system, according to the Maryland Constitution.[1][4]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 7
- Number of cases: 149
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 86.6%% (129)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Robert McDonald (38)
- Per curiam decisions: 10
- Concurring opinions: 13
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justice Shirley Marie Watts (5)
- Dissenting opinions: 20
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Shirley Marie Watts (7)
For the study's full set of findings in Maryland, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
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, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[5]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[6]
Maryland had a Court Balance Score of -0.71, indicating Split control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Court of Appeals, "Origin and Functions"
- ↑ Maryland Manual, "Constitution of Maryland, Article IV, Judiciary Department, Sections 3 and 5," accessed April 21, 2015
- ↑ Maryland Manual, "Constitution of Maryland, Article IV, Judiciary Department, Section 2," accessed April 21, 2015
- ↑ Maryland Manual, "Constitution of Maryland, Article IV, Judiciary Department, Section 14," accessed April 21, 2015
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Maryland • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Maryland
State courts:
Maryland Supreme Court • Appellate Court of Maryland • Maryland District Courts • Maryland Circuit Courts • Maryland Orphans' Court
State resources:
Courts in Maryland • Maryland judicial elections • Judicial selection in Maryland
| ||||||||||
