Bellingham is the county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies 21 miles (34 km) south of the U.S.–Canada border,between Vancouver,British Columbia,52 miles (84 km) to the northwest and Seattle 90 miles (140 km) to the south.
Whatcom County is a county located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington,bordered by the Lower Mainland of British Columbia to the north,Okanogan County to the east,Skagit County to the south,San Juan County across Rosario Strait to the southwest,and the Strait of Georgia to the west. Its county seat and largest population center is the coastal city of Bellingham,comprising the Bellingham,WA Metropolitan Statistical Area,and as of the 2020 census,the county's population was 226,847.
Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White,and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court,after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure,Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia (1996),Olmstead v. L.C. (1999),Friends of the Earth,Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services,Inc. (2000),and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). Later in her tenure,Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law. She was popularly dubbed "the Notorious R.B.G.",a moniker she later embraced.
The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of the state of Washington:Clallam,Clark,Cowlitz,Grays Harbor,Island,Jefferson,King,Kitsap,Lewis,Mason,Pacific,Pierce,San Juan,Skagit,Skamania,Snohomish,Thurston,Wahkiakum,and Whatcom. Its courthouse,built in 2004,is located at 7th and Stewart in Seattle.
Mary Elizabeth Fairhurst was an American attorney and jurist who served as a justice and chief justice of the Washington Supreme Court.
The Washington Court of Appeals is the intermediate level appellate court for the state of Washington. The court is divided into three divisions. Division I is based in Seattle,Division II is based in Tacoma,and Division III is based in Spokane.
Melissa Taylor Standridge is an American lawyer who has served as a justice of the Kansas Supreme Court since 2020. She previously served as a judge of the Kansas Court of Appeals from 2008 to 2020.
Mary Kay Becker has served as a Washington state judge on the Washington Court of Appeals,a former paralegal,Democratic member of the Washington House of Representatives and newspaper editor.
Mary Isabel Yu is an American lawyer who has served as an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court since 2014. She served as a judge of the King County Superior Court from 2000 to 2014. She is the state's first openly gay,Asian American,and Latina justice. As of 2020,she is also the seventh woman serving and the eleventh woman ever to serve on Washington state's Supreme Court.
Robert French Utter was an American attorney and jurist from Washington. He served as a King County Superior Court judge from 1964 until his appointment to the Washington Court of Appeals in 1968. In 1971 he was appointed to the Washington Supreme Court,where he served for 23 years,including two years as the chief justice. Utter is known for his opposition to the death penalty. He dissented in two dozen cases on capital punishment while on the court and resigned in 1995 in protest of it. After resigning from the court,Utter taught the first state constitutional law course in Washington State at the University of Puget Sound School of Law and traveled around the world to help developing nations create independent judiciaries. He died in 2014.
C. Shannon Bacon is an American attorney,legal scholar,and jurist serving as a justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court.
Tamika Renee Montgomery-Reeves is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She previously served as an Associate Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court.
General elections were held in the U.S. state of Washington on November 3,2020. A primary was held on August 4. This election cycle is notable as it was only the second in state history in which Democrats won the top three statewide elections by double digits. The first was the 1936 election,in the middle of the Great Depression. As of 2023,this was the last time Republicans won any statewide election in Washington.
Grace Helen Whitener,known professionally as G. Helen Whitener,is a Trinidadian-American attorney serving as an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court. Whitener was nominated by Governor Jay Inslee on April 13,2020,to fill the seat of retiring justice Charles K. Wiggins.
