After 33 years on Washington's highest court, Justice Barbara Madsen is getting ready to hang up the robe. Madsen has announced she will retire from the Washington Supreme Court effective April 3, closing out one of the longest tenures in the court's history and handing the governor a high-profile vacancy on a bench already in flux.
The court's administrative office posted a notice on February 2 confirming Madsen's plan to step down and detailing her service as a two-term chief justice and longtime leader of statewide judicial commissions. “I never imagined I would have the honor of being a justice of the Washington Supreme Court,” Madsen wrote in a letter to Gov. Bob Ferguson announcing her retirement. The notice adds that her current term runs through January 2029 and that her seat will be filled by a gubernatorial appointment, according to Washington State Courts.
How the vacancy will be filled
Governor Bob Ferguson publicly marked Madsen’s retirement in a Facebook post, thanking her for a lifetime of service and calling her a guide for the state’s judiciary, per Facebook. He has signaled that he plans to move to fill the seat so the court can keep operating smoothly during a year of change. The appointment will create an interim justice who will later have to run to serve the remainder of Madsen's term, according to local coverage of the announcement.
A long tenure and key rulings
Madsen joined the court after the 1992 election and went on to serve two terms as chief justice from 2010 to 2017, earning a reputation for institutional reforms and work on bias and access issues. She chaired the Washington State Gender and Justice Commission for decades and received national recognition for that work, according to the National Association of Women Judges. On the merits, she authored major opinions, including the court's 2015 decision in League of Women Voters v. Washington, which struck down the state's charter-school law, per the opinion text on Justia.
What comes next for the court
Madsen’s departure lands in the middle of a broader changing of the guard. Other justices have retired or signaled they will not seek another term, creating at least one competitive race and multiple appointments this year, a trend that local reporting has highlighted. That turnover could influence how the court approaches key legal questions for Washingtonians, especially in areas where the justices have been particularly active in recent years.
The governor's upcoming appointment, followed by elections to fill open seats, will shape how voters and officials reset the court's balance. This newsroom will update coverage as the governor's office releases application details and candidates step forward. Officials say the appointment and this election season are likely to be decisive for the court's near-term direction.
