Gerry Alexander

From Judgepedia

Gerry L. Alexander is an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court. He was first elected to the Court in 1994, and was re-elected in 2000 and 2006. Due to the court's age limit of 75, Chief Justice Alexander must retire from the court in 2011, before his current six-year term expires. ^[1] Alexander has served as Chief Justice of the court since 2001, but stepped down from that role on January 1, 2010. ^[2][3] He was originally appointed to the court by Republican Governor Daniel Evans.

Justice Gerry Alexander

Legal education

After earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, he served as a lieutenant in the United States Army Infantry. In 1964, he returned to University of Washington to earn his J.D. in 1964.

Legal experience

Justice Gerry Alexander has been in private practice, served in the superior court for Thurston and Mason Counties from 1973 to 1984, and in 1985, served on the Court of Appeals until 1994. In that year, he was elected to the Washington Supreme Court.^[4] In November 2008, Alexander was elected by the other justices of the court to a third four-year term as its Chief Justice. He is the 52nd chief justice of the court, and is the longest-serving Chief Justice in Washington State history.^[5]

Awards and associations

Justice Alexander was president of the Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity during his final year of law school, and has been designated as a distinguished alumnus of the University of Washington Law School and awarded a Doctor of Laws by Gonzaga University. Justice Alexander has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Superior Court Judges' Association and chairman of its Committee on Improvement of Judicial Administration. He is now chairman of the Advisory Commission on Washington Law Reports, the Bench-Bar-Press Committee of the State of Washington, the Board for Judicial Administration, and the Capitol Furnishings Preservation Committee of the State of Washington, and serves on the Statute Law Committee of the State of Washington. Justice Alexander is a co-founder and board member of the Washington Courts Historical Society, and has taught at the University of Puget Sound Law School. ^[4]

Election campaigns

In 1994, Justice Alexander beat Democratic state senator Janice Niemi and Superior Court Judge Faith Ireland for a seat on the Supreme Court by arguing that the justices on the court were writing half the opinions each year that they should. Each justice had been writing 15 opinions each year; Alexander believed it should be 30 per year, "that would be the same as having two more appellate judges at no expense to the taxpayer." Alexander beat Niemi with 52% of the vote.^[6],^[7] Alexander's race in 2000 was unopposed.^[8] In 2006, John Groen opposed Alexander in the bid for the seat. In this election, Alexander's campaign raised $271,547, with the group "Lawyers and Lobbyists" as the largest group in terms of giving to his campaign, with $83,670. Outside groups also spent heavily in the race.^[9],^[10],^[11]

Property tax limit

In a five to four ruling, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that voters did not understand what they were voting for when they approved Initiative 747, and that it was unconstitutional. The majority ruled "A voter reading the text of the initiative could believe that he or she was voting to reduce the property tax limit by 1 percent instead of by 5 percent, a substantially different impact on the public coffers, as well as the perceived benefit to the individual voter's purse." Justice Charles Johnson wrote for the dissent, and was joined by Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Justices Tom Chambers and Richard Sanders. He wrote, "The majority seems to suggest that the voters are unable to think or read for themselves, when in fact our democratic process is based on the assumption that voters do in fact read and understand the impact of their votes."^[12]

Attorney-client privilege

On May 13, 2004, the Washington Supreme Court ruled in a 5 to 4 decision that the attorney-client privilege is greater than the "Public Disclosure Act." Chief Justice Gerry Alexander wrote for the majority that the legislature "created the exemption when it amended the disclosure law, which makes most government documents available to the public, in 1987."^[13]

External links

Wikipedia has an article on

Gerry Alexander

• Interview with Chief Justice Alexander, from the Supreme Court of Washington Blog Podcast, October 30, 2009
• Washington Court System: Gerry Alexander biography
• News Tribune: Interview with Alexander on Attorney-Client Privilege Controversy
• Follow the Money: Gerry Alexander
• Project Vote Smart: Gerry Alexander
• Transcripts of Gerry Alexander
• Open Letter to Judge Alexander
• Alexander prevails in bitter court race
• The Washington Supreme Court blog, an unofficial blog that covers the Washington State Supreme Court and its justices

References

The Washington Project on Judgepedia

Supreme Court Court of Appeals Federal court of appeal

Federal eastern district for Washington Federal western district for Washington