Kate M. Fox
2014 - Present
2033
11
Kate M. Fox is a judge of the Wyoming Supreme Court. She assumed office on January 6, 2014. Her current term ends on January 3, 2033.
Fox ran for re-election for judge of the Wyoming Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.
Fox was elected by her peers as chief justice of the court on July 1, 2021.[1]
Gov. Matt Mead (R) appointed Fox to the Wyoming Supreme Court in November 2013 to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Barton Voigt.[2] Fox stood for retention in 2016 to remain on the bench. To read more about judicial selection in Wyoming, 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.[3] Fox received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Kate Fox received a B.A. from the University of Wyoming in 1976 and a J.D. from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1989.[5] Before joining the Wyoming Supreme Court, Fox was a partner in the office of Davis & Cannon. Prior to that, she served as law clerk to Federal District Court Judge Clarence A. Brimmer for a year. She has also worked on her family's dude ranch.[5]
Elections
2025
Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Kate M. Fox is retiring on May 27, 2025. She announced her retirement in a letter to the Wyoming Judicial Nominating Commission, of which she is the chair.[6] Fox's replacement will be Governor Gordon's (R) third nominee to the five-member supreme court.
In Wyoming, state supreme court justices are selected through assisted appointment with a hybrid judicial nominating commission. Justices are appointed by the governor with the assistance of a commission who has no majority of members selected either by the governor or the state Bar Association. There are 10 states that use this selection method. To read more about the assisted appointment of judges, click here.
When a vacancy occurs, the governor appoints a replacement from a list of three names provided by a nominating commission. After the appointed justice has served at least one year, they must stand for retention in the next general election. If retained, a judge will finish the remainder of his or her predecessor's unexpired term. Subsequent terms last eight years.[7]
2024
See also: Wyoming Supreme Court elections, 2024
Wyoming Supreme Court, Kate M. Fox's seat
Kate M. Fox was retained to the Wyoming Supreme Court on November 5, 2024 with 78.5% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
78.5
|
177,758 | ||
No |
21.5
|
48,619 | |||
Total Votes |
226,377 | ||||
|
|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Fox in this election.
2016
- See also: Wyoming Supreme Court elections, 2016
Justice Fox filed to stand for retention by voters in 2016.[8]
Election results
November 8 general election
Kate M. Fox was retained in the Wyoming Supreme Court. She won election with 76.32% of the vote.
| Wyoming Supreme Court, Fox's Seat, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes votes | |
 Kate M. Fox | 76.32% | |
| Source: Wyoming Secretary of State Official Results | ||
2013
Governor Matt Mead (R) appointed Fox to the Wyoming Supreme Court in November 2013 to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Barton Voigt.[2]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Kate M. Fox 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.[9]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[10]
- 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.
Kate
Fox
Wyoming
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Fox was appointed by Gov. Matt Mead (R) in 2013. At the time of her appointment, Wyoming was a Republican trifecta.
Noteworthy cases
The section below lists noteworthy cases heard by this judge. To suggest cases we should cover here, email us.
State supreme court judicial selection in Wyoming
- See also: Judicial selection in Wyoming
The five justices of the Wyoming Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. When a vacancy occurs, the governor appoints a replacement from a list of three names provided by a nominating commission. There are seven members on the commission. Three members must be lawyers appointed by the state bar and three must be non-lawyers appointed by the governor. The chief justice of the supreme court serves as chairman and only votes in the event of a tie. The governor must appoint a person from the commission's list.[7]
Newly appointed judges serve for at least one year, after which they must stand for retention in the next general election. If retained, a judge will finish the remainder of his or her predecessor's unexpired term. Subsequent terms last eight years.[11][12]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. citizen;
- a state resident for at least three years;
- at least nine years legal experience;
- no younger than 30 years old; and
- no older than 70.*[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by peer vote, serving in that capacity for four years.[11][7]
Vacancies
When a vacancy occurs, the governor appoints a replacement from a list of three names provided by a nominating commission. After the appointed justice has served at least one year, they must stand for retention in the next general election. If retained, a judge will finish the remainder of his or her predecessor's unexpired term. Subsequent terms last eight years.[7]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Casper Star Tribune, "Kate Fox named Wyoming's second female Chief Justice," June 29, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Count 10, "Cheyenne Attorney Kate Fox, originally of Dubois, appointed to Wyoming Supreme Court," November 21, 2013
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Davis & Cannon LLP website, "Kate M. Fox profile," accessed December 2, 2013
- ↑ Wyoming Judicial Branch, "Judicial Nominating Commission Announces Wyoming Supreme Court Vacancy," January 30, 2025
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 National Center for State Courts, "Judicial Merit Selection: Current Status," accessed August 12, 2021
- ↑ Wyoming Secretary of State, "2016 Judges Standing for Retention," accessed January 20, 2017
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Wyoming," accessed August 11, 2021
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Wyoming," archived January 13, 2012
Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Wyoming • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Wyoming
State courts:
Wyoming Supreme Court • Wyoming District Courts • Wyoming Circuit Courts • Wyoming Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Wyoming • Wyoming judicial elections • Judicial selection in Wyoming
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