Colleen Melody is officially the Washington state Supreme Court’s newest justice.
Melody is replacing retired Justice Mary Yu, a trailblazing jurist appointed in 2014. Gov. Bob Ferguson appointed Melody in November.
She was formally sworn in Wednesday during a packed ceremony at the Temple of Justice in Olympia.
“I raise my hand to serve in this role because I believe so strongly in all moments, but maybe particularly in this moment, Washingtonians deserve judges who will serve with integrity and humility and a deep respect for Washington’s independent role as a sovereign state,” Melody said.
“I promise to listen and to work hard,” she continued. “I promise to treat everyone who comes before this court with fairness and respect. I promise to follow the rule of law. And I promise to honor the longstanding values that make Washington the best place in the entire country to live.”
Melody will be up for election this year to serve the remainder of Yu’s term through the end of 2028. She comes to the high court from the state attorney general’s office, where she worked under Ferguson.
Ferguson made clear the importance of her new role on the nine-justice court.
“The decisions of this court influence virtually every facet of our lives down to the most personal choices and the most consequential rights,” he said Wednesday.
For the past decade, Melody led the attorney general’s office’s civil rights division and its team of now 35 staffers. In 2017, she helped helm the state’s challenge to President Donald Trump’s first travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
She was in the U.S. Supreme Court last year to watch arguments in the legal challenge to Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship. Attorney General Nick Brown said he watched as she teared up when the office’s lawyers were sworn in to argue there.
Melody’s former bosses — Ferguson, Brown and Todd Bowers, the attorney general’s head of federal litigation — used many superlatives to describe her: brightest, hardest working, most caring.
“If you think you are smart, Colleen is smarter,” Brown said. “If you think that you have prepared for your argument, Colleen has prepared more. If you think that you care about getting the right outcome, no one will care more than Justice Colleen Melody.”
Brown expressed joking frustration with the governor for taking Melody away from his office. But Brown, the former U.S. district attorney in western Washington, noted he had tried unsuccessfully to recruit her to be a federal judge.
Ferguson called it a “privilege” to watch Melody work.
“And it was an even greater privilege to witness you applying those considerable skills and avenues into serving those in our state and our country who need it most,” he added.
Melody is from Spokane and graduated from the University of Washington School of Law. After law school, she clerked for U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ronald Gould. Prior to joining the attorney general’s office, she worked in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
Melody has previously successfully argued before the state Supreme Court. She joins the high court with no experience as a judge. Technically, she’s been on the bench since Jan. 1, but hasn’t gotten her own robe yet so she’s been wearing one of Yu’s that has the retired justice’s initials stitched in cursive.
She lives on Vashon Island with her husband Zach and two young daughters.
The court Thursday is set to hear arguments on Initiative 2066, the successful ballot measure seeking to stop the state’s transition away from natural gas.
Another vacancy will open up on the court this year, as the state constitution requires justices to retire at the end of the calendar year in which they turn 75. Justice Charles Johnson, who has been on the court since 1991, turns 75 in March.
This story was originally published in the Washington State Standard.
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