Raquel Montoya-Lewis | |
---|---|
Associate Justice of the Washington Supreme Court | |
Assumed office January 6, 2020 | |
Nominated by | Jay Inslee |
Preceded by | Mary Fairhurst |
Personal details | |
Born | Raquel Devahl Montoya April 3,1968 Spain |
Political party | Democratic |
Education | University of New Mexico (BA) University of Washington (MSW,JD) |
Raquel Devahl Montoya-Lewis (born April 3,1968) is an American attorney and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court. She was nominated by Governor Jay Inslee on December 4,2019,to fill the seat of retiring justice Mary Fairhurst.
Montoya-Lewis was born in Spain,where her father was stationed in the United States Air Force. [1] Raised in New Mexico,she is a member of the Pueblo of Isleta and descended from the Pueblo of Laguna. [2] Montoya-Lewis and her mother,who was born in Australia,are Jewish. [3] [4]
Montoya-Lewis earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Mexico,a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Washington,and Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School of Law. [5]
Montoya-Lewis was a professor at Fairhaven College of Western Washington University in Bellingham,Washington. From 2008 to 2011 she was chief judge of the Lummi Nation. She also served as chief judge for the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe and the Nooksack Indian Tribe,and served as a trial and appellate judge for numerous tribes around the country. [6] She served on the Whatcom County Superior Court from 2015 to 2020,after being appointed to that seat by Governor Inslee in December 2014;she retained her seat through two elections in 2015 and 2016 [6] [7] She assumed office on the Washington Supreme Court on January 6,2020. She is the second Native American person to sit on a state supreme court and the first enrolled tribal member. [8]
On November 3,2020,she was elected for a six-year term,after running against Federal Way municipal court judge Dave Larson,and winning 58 percent of the vote,to his 41 percent. [9]
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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.
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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.
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