Shirley Marie Watts
2013 - Present
2034
11
Shirley Marie Watts is a judge for the 6th Circuit of the Maryland Supreme Court. She assumed office on July 31, 2013. Her current term ends on December 31, 2034.
Watts ran for re-election for the 6th Circuit judge of the Maryland Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.
Watts became a member of the court through gubernatorial appointment when she was appointed to the court by Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley in July 2013.[1][2] The court's name changed from the Maryland Court of Appeals to the Maryland Supreme Court, following a ballot initiative that voters approved in November 2022.[3] To read more about judicial selection in Maryland, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[4] Watts received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[5] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Watts received her undergraduate degree from Howard University in 1980 and her J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law in 1983. She began her legal career in 1984 as an assistant state's attorney for the Baltimore's Juvenile, Misdemeanor and Felony Trial Division. From 1988 to 1997, she served as a public defender with the Office of Federal Public Defender in the District of Maryland, and from 1997 to 2002, she was an administrative law judge with the Office of Hearings and Appeals of the Social Security Administration.
From 2002 to 2011, Watts was an associate judge for Maryland Eighth Circuit. She was appointed to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in 2011, where she served until her appointment to the Court of Appeals, later renamed the Maryland Supreme Court, by Governor O'Malley on July 31, 2013. She is a member of the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys and the National Association of Women Judges, and in 2000 she was awarded the Outstanding Leadership Award for Hearing Office Administrative Law Judges by the Social Security Administration.[6]
Elections
2024
See also: Maryland Supreme Court elections, 2024
Maryland Supreme Court 6th Circuit, Shirley Marie Watts' seat
Shirley Marie Watts was retained to the 6th Circuit of the Maryland Supreme Court on November 5, 2024 with 89.1% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
89.1
|
133,459 | ||
No |
10.9
|
16,379 | |||
Total Votes |
149,838 | ||||
|
|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Watts in this election.
2014
Watts was retained to the Court of Appeals with 88.4 percent of the vote on November 4, 2014. [7]
2012
- See also: Maryland judicial elections, 2012
Watts stood for retention to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in 2012 and was retained.[8][9][10]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Shirley Marie Watts did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Shirley Marie
Watts
Maryland
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
- State was a Democratic trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Watts was appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D). At the time of her appointment, Maryland was a Democratic trifecta.
Noteworthy cases
Noteworthy cases may be selected due to their impact on legal precedent, substantial media attention, or overlaps with another area of editorial interest at Ballotpedia. To suggest cases we should cover here, email us.
State supreme court judicial selection in Maryland
- See also: Judicial selection in Maryland
The seven judges of the Maryland Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. The Maryland Judicial Nominating Commission is responsible for screening candidates and submitting a shortlist to the governor. This commission consists of 17 members appointed by the governor and the Maryland State Bar Association. The governor must appoint a judge from the commission's shortlist and the appointee must then be confirmed by the Maryland State Senate.[13][14]
After serving for one year, judges must stand for retention in the next general election if they wish to remain on the court. If retained, a judge wins a full ten-year term.[13]
The court's name changed from the Maryland Court of Appeals to the Maryland Supreme Court, following a ballot initiative that voters approved in November 2022.[3]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. and state citizen;
- a registered state voter;
- a state resident for at least five years;
- a resident of the geographic area where the vacancy exists for at least six months;
- a state bar member;
- at least 30 years old; and
- under the age of 70 (retirement at 70 is mandatory).[13]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is designated by the governor to serve indefinite terms.[13]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a judge's term. A judicial nominating commission recommends qualified candidates to the governor and the governor selects a successor from that list. The new appointee serves for at least one year and then stands for retention at the next general election.[13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Maryland Supreme Court 6th Circuit |
Footnotes
- ↑ Maryland.gov, "Shirley M. Watts biography," accessed June 17, 2014
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Maryland," accessed May 1, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 CBS Baltimore, "The Court of Appeals of Maryland is now the Supreme Court of Maryland," December 14, 2022
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Maryland Court of Appeals, "Shirley M. Watts Biography," accessed July 13, 2021
- ↑ Maryland State Board of Elections, "2014 Gubernatorial General Election State Candidates List - Court of Appeals," accessed October 2, 2014
- ↑ Maryland State Board of Elections, "General Election Candidates List, Judge for Court of Special Appeals," 2012
- ↑ Maryland State Board of Elections, "General Election Results, Court of Special Appeals," 2012
- ↑ Maryland State Board of Elections, "Official 2012 Presidential General Election Results," accessed December 1, 2012
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Maryland," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ Maryland Manual Online, APPELLATE COURTS JUDICIAL NOMINATING COMMISSION," February 28, 2020
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Maryland Supreme Court 6th Circuit 2013-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| ||||||||||
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Current judges | Jonathan Biran, Brynja McDivitt Booth, Angela M. Eaves, Matthew Fader, Steven Gould, Peter K. Killough, Shirley Marie Watts | ||
| Former judges | Michele D. Hotten | ||
Federal courts:
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Maryland • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Maryland
State courts:
Maryland Supreme Court • Appellate Court of Maryland • Maryland District Courts • Maryland Circuit Courts • Maryland Orphans' Court
State resources:
Courts in Maryland • Maryland judicial elections • Judicial selection in Maryland
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