Tennessee Supreme Court elections, 2022
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The terms of five Tennessee Supreme Court justices expired on September 1, 2022. The five seats were up for retention election on August 4, 2022.
Tennessee 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 results
Middle Section
Jeff Bivins
Tennessee Supreme Court Middle Section, Bivins' seat
Jeff Bivins was retained to the Tennessee Supreme Court Middle Section on August 4, 2022 with 71.5% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
71.5
|
462,036 | ||
No |
28.5
|
183,853 | |||
Total Votes |
645,889 | ||||
|
|
Sarah Campbell
Tennessee Supreme Court Middle Section, Campbell's seat
Sarah Campbell was retained to the Tennessee Supreme Court Middle Section on August 4, 2022 with 72.9% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
72.9
|
466,860 | ||
No |
27.1
|
173,306 | |||
Total Votes |
640,166 | ||||
|
|
Eastern Section
Sharon Lee
Tennessee Supreme Court Eastern Section, Sharon Lee's seat
Sharon G. Lee was retained to the Tennessee Supreme Court Eastern Section on August 4, 2022 with 73.0% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
73.0
|
463,799 | ||
No |
27.0
|
171,522 | |||
Total Votes |
635,321 | ||||
|
|
Western Section
Holly Kirby
Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section, Kirby's seat
Holly Kirby was retained to the Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section on August 4, 2022 with 73.8% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
73.8
|
468,351 | ||
No |
26.2
|
166,200 | |||
Total Votes |
634,551 | ||||
|
|
Roger A. Page
Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section, Roger A. Page's seat
Roger A. Page was retained to the Tennessee Supreme Court Western Section on August 4, 2022 with 72.1% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
72.1
|
450,681 | ||
No |
27.9
|
174,269 | |||
Total Votes |
624,950 | ||||
|
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Voting information
- See also: Voting in Tennessee
About the Tennessee Supreme Court
- See also: Tennessee Supreme Court
The Tennessee Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort and has five judgeships.
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election.
| ■ Sharon Lee | Appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) in 2008 | |
| ■ Holly Kirby | Appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam (R) in 2013 | |
| ■ Roger A. Page | Appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam (R) in 2016 | |
| ■ Jeff Bivins | Appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam (R) in 2014 | |
| ■ Sarah Campbell | Appointed by Gov. Bill Lee (R) in 2022 |
Selection
Justices of the Tennessee Supreme Court are appointed by the governor of Tennessee and confirmed by the Tennessee General Assembly. Appointed justices must be retained by voters in the next general election following appointment. Justices serve eight-year terms and may stand for retention by voters to further eight-year terms.
Qualifications
A qualified candidate for the Tennessee Supreme Court is one who meets the requirements set out in Article 8-18-101 of the Tennessee Constitution, and further, the person must be at least 35 years old and have been a resident of Tennessee for at least five years. He or she must also be an attorney licensed to practice law in the state.[1]
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: 5
- Number of cases: 34
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 85.3% (29)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Clark (8)
- Per curiam decisions: 3
- Concurring opinions: 2
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justice Kirby (2)
- Dissenting opinions: 6
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Lee (3)
For the study's full set of findings in Tennessee, 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[2]
- 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.[3]
Tennessee had a Court Balance Score of 1.80, indicating Republican 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
- ↑ Bradley County Election Commission, "Bradley Elections: Tennessee Qualifications," accessed September 2, 2014
- ↑ 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:
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Tennessee, Middle District of Tennessee, Western District of Tennessee • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Tennessee, Middle District of Tennessee, Western District of Tennessee
State courts:
Tennessee Supreme Court • Tennessee Court of Appeals • Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals • Tennessee Circuit Court • Tennessee Chancery Courts • Tennessee Criminal Court • Tennessee Probate Court • Tennessee General Sessions Court • Tennessee Juvenile Court • Tennessee Municipal Court
State resources:
Courts in Tennessee • Tennessee judicial elections • Judicial selection in Tennessee
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