Spokane native Colleen Melody seeks to retain Supreme Court seat as opponents raise impartiality concerns

The appointment of Colleen Melody to the state Supreme Court late last year drew broad praise among the state's legal community and elected officials.

Melody, who joined the court on Jan. 1, arrived after an 11-year career leading the Attorney General's Office Wing Luke Civil Rights Division under then-Attorney General Bob Ferguson and current Attorney General Nick Brown.

By law, she must now seek re-election to fill the remainder of the term, which runs through 2028.

However, the appointment sparked concern among some, including her two opponents in the August primary, as an example of the executive branch's outsized influence on the state's judicial system.

Currently, six of the nine justices on the court were appointed by the governor, though Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis has opted not to seek re-election.

The 2026 election will see Melody and Justice Theo Angelis seek election to fill the remainder of their terms months after being appointed, while Chief Justice Debra Stephens will seek re-election to a fourth term on the bench after initially being appointed by Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Melody grew up in Spokane, graduating from Ferris High School before attending the University of Washington, where she was a Gates Public Service Scholar. She later served in the Department of Justice's civil rights division in the nation's capital. Her endorsements include her eight fellow state Supreme Court justices, Brown, Gov. Ferguson and former Gov. Jay Inslee.

In an interview this week, Melody said "in some ways, this election, to me, represents the full set of choices" Washington residents have.

"There will be wide -open seats, there's the chief justice who's running after being elected several times, and there are two of us, as you say, who were appointed initially and now have to run immediately to retain our seats," Melody said Wednesday.

The system, she said, provides "more accountability to the voters" than the federal system, where judges receive lifetime appointments without needing to seek reappointment or needing to run for re-election.

As she runs to retain her seat, both of Melody's challengers - Laura Christensen Colberg and Scott Edwards - have raised concerns about her independence.

Colberg, a court commissioner pro tem in Snohomish County Superior Court for 18 years has practiced family law for 30 years. She said it wasn't "on my bucket list" to run for the position. But she said her experience in family law, and a desire to ensure each seat faced a challenger, prompted her campaign to unseat Melody.

"It's the area of law that most people, the average citizen, might intersect with the court system. Through a divorce, a child custody proceeding or child support," Colberg said in an interview Thursday. "So, knowing what real people experience in the court system, again not in a criminal sense but in a 'this is my life' sense, and I have to go to court. Often that's a negative experience, and unless the Supreme Court justices know how those decisions trickle down, I don't think some things will change, or they won't change quickly."

In the interview, Colberg expressed concern about gubernatorial appointments to the court, and said the two recent appointments "can't help but appear like there is a conflict of interest."

"And if that's the public perception that the judiciary is just being stacked by the governor in power at the time, whether it's Democrats or Republicans, it's a poor choice on the part of the governor, I think," Colberg said. "I absolutely think there is a basis for recusal, or to disqualify her, on the basis of this conflict."

Colberg said she wants to focus on her impartiality and judicial experience, which she said sets her apart from the other candidates in the race.

"Where you have candidates on either side of me, who are either close to the governor, and for example, the people who created the tax legislation, and then Mr. Edwards, he brought a case already contesting the capital gains tax," Colberg said. "No one knows really where I'm going to fall on the spectrum, because, guess what? I'm not talking about it."

Colberg received the recommendation of the state Republican Party.

Edwards, a tax attorney and affiliate instructor at the University of Washington Law School, raised similar concerns and said it's resulted in a court that's "recognized nationally as being one of the most progressive courts in the country."

"And part of that progressivism is interpreting the laws and constitutions beyond the language and precedent, injecting desired policy outcomes into the decision-making process," Edwards said. "In my view, an independent judiciary is one elected by the people that focuses on sticking to its meaning and doing the job of interpreting the law and Constitution as written."

Edwards said the focus of his campaign is "really simple and straightforward."

"I want to bring back principled judgment and the focus on the rule of law to the court," Edwards said. "And when I say focus on the rule of law, I'm talking about interpreting statutes and the Constitution as written, recognizing the separation of powers, and the court not having a role in policy making, that that's left to the Legislature and to the people."

Edwards said he believes the majority of the court being up for election is a "historic and watershed" event.

"I think that gives the electorate an unprecedented opportunity to vote for judicial candidates that reflect the type of judicial philosophy that they would like," Edwards said. "And so if people are happy with the status quo, they can re-elect the incumbents. If they would like to see change, and would like to see the court move back to becoming more balanced and focusing on interpreting the statutes as written, and in accordance with the Constitution, they have the opportunity to do so by voting people like me into office."

Edwards has the backing of Gil Brewer, the former senior assistant director of tax policy at the Washington state Department of Revenue.

But the criticism of a lack of judicial independence is something Melody believes is unwarranted.

During the interview, Melody said she doesn't agree with either Brown or Ferguson "all of the time," something she said is true for all governor-appointees.

Melody said she takes the issue of impartiality "really seriously," and has recused herself from two cases while on the bench so far. The decision, she said, is made after consideration of the disqualification provision of the code of judicial conduct, which outlines when a judge's impartiality may be reasonably questioned, and will "continue to apply that going forward, of course."

Melody added that she would "just never think it's a bad thing for the sitting governor and attorney general to think that somebody's a good lawyer, a hard worker, who's someone whose kind of legal judgment belongs on the court."

"I worry much more about a system where people whose work hasn't been vetted, who are sort of relative unknowns to other public servants and people in government, to sort of suddenly take over a seat on the Washington state Supreme Court," Melody said.

Melody said she is running for a full term "for the same reason" she sought the appointment in the first place.

"We're in a moment where state courts and states' rights have sort of never been more important," Melody said, noting that 95% of all court cases are decided in state court systems. "We're seeing federal law continue to change in pretty dramatic ways, and as somebody who is focused on the rights of individuals and entities that are protected by the law, it's becoming increasingly important for states to have a clear set of jurisprudence."

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