Attorney Eugster loses another legal battle

Attorney and former Spokane City Council member Steve Eugster lost another legal decision today, this time challenging the way the state elects appellate judges and assigns them to three-judge panels. The Washington Supreme Court, which in 2009 voted to suspend rather than disbar Eugster in an unrelated case, agreed to hear the challenge filed in Thurston County in what’s called a direct review because of the awkwardness of having appellate judges rule on the way they were elected. Eugster appealed a Superior Court judge’s decision to dismiss the case. Upon review, the state’s high court unanimously agreed to uphold the lower court’s decision with Justice Mary Fairhurst writing for the majority that Eugster failed to prove that the laws establishing Washington’s Court of Appeals are unconstitutional.