Gregoire elevates Spokane judge

OLYMPIA – Saying that Washington’s Supreme Court should resemble the population it serves, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Tuesday appointed a fast-rising Eastern Washington judge to the state’s highest court.

Spokane native Debra L. Stephens – appointed by Gregoire to an appeals court seat in April – will replace retiring Bobbe Bridge as one of the state’s nine Supreme Court justices.

“I think that she has experience that is unbelievable value added to that bench,” Gregoire said at the Temple of Justice in Olympia on Tuesday. Stephens is the first native Eastern Washington female lawyer ever appointed to the high court, according to Gregoire’s office.

Stephens is also the first Eastern Washingtonian to serve on the court since Spokane native Richard Guy retired as chief justice seven years ago. Justice Tom Chambers was raised in Wapato, but has worked mostly in Western Washington.

At 42, Stephens is no stranger to the echoing courtroom where she’ll soon sit. As an appellate lawyer, she appeared more than 100 times before the high court, as well arguing cases before the Idaho Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Most lawyers never get to the Supreme Court once,” said associate professor George Critchlow, who taught criminal procedure to Stephens at Gonzaga Law School in the early 1990s. Even appellate lawyers argue before the high court “maybe a handful of times,” he said.

“It’s a very good appointment,” former Chief Justice Guy said from his Hawaii home Tuesday, praising Stephens’ appeals work and research. “She brings just about everything.”

Gregoire said she repeatedly changed her mind on the appointment, nearly settling on three other candidates in recent weeks.

Stephens won out, Gregoire said, because she’s “an absolute legal scholar” who also knows the importance of making the law meaningful to everyday people.

Gregoire said it also helped that Stephens comes from Eastern Washington, home to knotty legal problems like water-rights law and cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

“I have confidence in all of these justices,” Gregoire said, “but now Eastern Washington can see there’s someone who really feels, knows and understands not just the law, but what it’s like to be a part of a community and have those legal issues.”

Stephens also said her background “brings a different sense to some of the issues that come before the court. Because as we see on so many issues, there seems to be a different outlook from the majority of the people from Eastern Washington.”

She said she voted for Gregoire in 2004, and state campaign finance records show that in 2003, while still working as an attorney, she contributed $100 to Gregoire’s campaign. Stephens said it was a campaign kickoff breakfast. It is the only campaign contribution she’s made, according to a seven-year search of the database.

“This is not about Democrats,” said Gregoire. “….This is about getting the best justice on this bench.”

The court has also recently been deeply divided on several high-profile issues, sometimes sharply criticizing each other in opinions and dissents. Last month, for example, the justices ruled 5 to 4 to throw out a property tax limit as unconstitutional. Gregoire said she hopes Stephens’ collegiality will help unify the court.

That’s a good bet, said Critchlow, who also coached Stephens in moot court competitions. While a brilliant “legal technician” and scholar, he said, Stephens is also widely liked and respected, with an engaging personality.

“She has a combination of humility and confidence, and she’s very non-threatening, regardless of who her audience is,” he said.

Stephens described her judicial philosophy as one of core values, including “fairness, impartiality, deciding only what you must decide, (and) judicial restraint.”

“The court is not the Legislature,” she said.

Stephens served for more than a decade on the Orchard Prairie School District board, and has been an elder, deacon and Sunday school teacher at Millwood Community Presbyterian Church. She joked with reporters Tuesday about Presbyterians’ “frozen chosen” quiet reserve – but also noted that several presidents were Presbyterians.

Stephens’ father, local businessman Jim Williams, also has political experience. He ran as a Republican for Spokane County commissioner in 1988 and for state representative in 1998, both times losing in the primary. He was also a founding member of the local public facilities district, which planned and built Veterans’ Memorial Arena. Stephens’ mother, Jan Smith, lives in Post Falls, Idaho.

Stephens’ husband, Craig, and children Lindsey, 17, and Bob, 12, were with her at Tuesday’s announcement. Both children will finish the school year, then the family plans to move to the Olympia area. One thing they’ll never sell, Stephens said: a family cabin on the Snake River.