The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.
The Supreme Court of Oklahoma is a court of appeal for non-criminal cases, one of the two highest judicial bodies in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and leads the judiciary of Oklahoma, the judicial branch of the government of Oklahoma.
Tom Colbert is a former Associate Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He was appointed to the Court's District 6 seat in 2004, by Governor Brad Henry, becoming the first African-American to serve on the court. On January 4, 2013, he was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and served In that post until January 2015. After completing his two-year term as Chief Justice, he resumed his previous position on the court as Associate Justice representing the 6th Judicial District. On January 19, 2021, Colbert’s retirement was announced by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, effective February 1 of the same year.
Joseph M. Watt is a former Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, who assumed the post in 1992. He was reelected in 1994, 1996, and 2002. From 2003 to 2007, he served two terms as Chief Justice. In 2005, he was reelected to an unprecedented second term as Chief Justice, despite a federal age discrimination lawsuit filed by the Court's then-Vice Chief Justice Marian P. Opala, then 83 years old, who claimed Supreme Court rules were changed to prevent Opala from becoming Chief Justice. Justice Watt sent a letter to Governor Mary Fallin on October 2, 2017, stating that he would retire effective December 31, 2017.
The government of the U.S. State of Oklahoma, established by the Oklahoma Constitution, is a republican democracy modeled after the federal government of the United States. The state government has three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial. Through a system of separation of powers or "checks and balances," each of these branches has some authority to act on its own, some authority to regulate the other two branches, and has some of its own authority, in turn, regulated by the other branches.
The Oklahoma Court System is the judicial system for the U.S. State of Oklahoma. Based in Oklahoma City, the court system is a unified state court system that functions under the Chief Justice of Oklahoma who is its administrator-in-chief.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is one of the two highest judicial bodies in the U.S. state of Oklahoma and is part of the Oklahoma Court System, the judicial branch of the Oklahoma state government.
John F. Reif is a former Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, serving from 2007 until he retired in 2009. Previously, he had served for 20 years on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals.
The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals is an intermediate appellate court in the state of Oklahoma. Cases are assigned to it by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the state's highest court for civil matters.
Michael J. Hunter is an American politician from the state of Oklahoma. Hunter served as the Secretary of State of Oklahoma from 1999 to 2002, having been appointed by Governor of Oklahoma Frank Keating. On November 1, 2016, he was appointed to the same post by Governor Mary Fallin. He also served as Special Counsel to the Governor. On February 20, 2017, Hunter was appointed Attorney General of Oklahoma, replacing Scott Pruitt who was confirmed as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency three days earlier on February 17. In 2018, Hunter was elected Attorney General, beating Mark Myles. May 28, 2018 was the first day of arguments in the case that his office brought against Johnson & Johnson regarding the opioid epidemic.
E. Bay Mitchell, III is a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, the intermediate appellate court in the state of Oklahoma. He represents District 6, Office 1. Governor Frank Keating appointed him to this position in 2002. and he was retained by voters in 2004, in 2006, and 2012. He was up for another retention election in 2018, at the end of his 6-year term.
Jane P. Wiseman is an American judge. She currently sits on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, the intermediate appellate court of the state of Oklahoma.
Carol M. Hansen was a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, the intermediate appellate court in the state of Oklahoma. Educated at the Oklahoma City University of Law after raising five children, she became a municipal judge in 1993. She was appointed marshal for the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 1984, then appointed as a justice of the Oklahoma Court of Appeals in 1985. She became the first woman to serve as Chief Judge in any Oklahoma appellate court. She resigned from the court in 2012, because health problems were causing her to lose her eyesight.
John Fischer is a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, the intermediate appellate court in the state of Oklahoma.
Jerry L. Goodman was born April 17, 1939 in Mangum, Oklahoma. He was a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, an intermediate appellate court in the state of Oklahoma, for twenty-five years. Appointed to the court by Governor David Walters on July 26, 1994, Goodman was retained by voters in 1996, 2002, and 2008. On November 4, 2014 voters returned him for a full term ending January 10, 2021, with a favorable vote of 60.4 percent. Judge Goodman was elected chief judge of the court for a one-year term in 2016.
Daniel J. Boudreau, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of the University of Tulsa College of Law, is an Oklahoma attorney who was a Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1999 to 2004. After retiring from the Supreme Court, he is now in private practice as a specialist in Alternative Dispute Resolution, which he has also taught at the University of Tulsa College of Law.
Robert D. Bell was born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma. He earned two law degrees, one in his home state and the second in North Carolina. He then spent 13 years in private practice in his hometown while also serving as a municipal in 5 towns and cities of Oklahoma. First appointed a judge in 1994, he was then the youngest sitting judge of any kind in the state. In 2005, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, a position he still holds to this after winning votes on retention in 2006, 2012 and 2018.
Kenneth L. Buettner is a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals.
P. Thomas (Tom) Thornbrugh is a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals. He was born in Garnett, Kansas. He graduated in 1968 from Emporia State University with a B. A. in speech, then enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, then went to Vietnam, where he served with the 1st ARVN Division, and the 1st Signal Brigade at Khe Sanh during the 1971 Laotion invasion. He was honored with the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster for his actions at Khe Sanh. He received an honorable discharge in 1971, and returned to the United States.
Dana Kuehn, a native of Tulsa, currently serves on the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA). On October 2, 2017, she was appointed as Associate Justice by Governor Mary Fallin to fill the unexpired Judicial District No. 1 term of Judge Clancy Smith. She is now Vice-Presiding Judge of the Court. Previously Kuehn was Associate District Judge of Tulsa County, where she had served since 1996. Her current term expires January 13, 2025.
