Supreme Court justice to teach at Gonzaga, Seattle U after April retirement

Longtime Supreme Court Justice Barbara Madsen will teach state constitutional law at Gonzaga School of Law and Seattle University School of Law after retiring in April.

“I’m really excited about teaching law, particularly state constitutional law, since I’ve written so many of the opinions,” Madsen said. “I feel like it’s a natural for me.”

Madsen graduated with her law degree from Gonzaga Law School in 1977. Madsen said she would not be able to start teaching until next year, due to the time it takes to compile the class material.

“It’s really important at this time in our history to have students aware of our own state constitution,” she said. “It’s going to make a big impact on our state, which is what I care about most.”

A class on state constitutional law has not been taught at Gonzaga in three years, according to Law School Dean Jacob Rooksby.

“She’s the perfect person to teach it, with her experience and familiarity with our law school,” he said. “I know it’s going to be a real big hit with our students, and we hope it’s the first of many courses that she’ll be teaching for us.”

Madsen is not the first Supreme Court Justice to teach at Gonzaga Law, current Chief Justice Debra Stephens and former Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst both taught there.

Madsen announced her retirement at the start of the month, roughly three years before her term would have ended. Madsen, who turns 74 on March 1, could only have served an additional year, due to the state constitution barring anyone 75 or older from being on the bench.

“Part of it is when you realize you’re turning 74, and you still want to do some things in life,” she said. “It makes sense for me personally to spend more of my life doing things that I haven’t done before.”

Shortly after announcing her retirement, Gov. Bob Ferguson announced he would select her replacement by her retirement. This would mark the second justice Ferguson has nominated to the Supreme Court since taking office in 2025. Madsen had conversations with Ferguson, but only regarding what new perspectives could be added to the court.

“He was interested in what I thought would improve the court, what sort of person would improve the court,” she said. “I thought we could use some folks who had been on the court of appeals because that’s really the closest type of position to the Supreme Court.”

In 1992, Madsen became the first woman in state history elected to the Supreme Court. She is also the first woman elected to serve as chief justice twice and is the second longest {%%note} {/%%note}-serving Supreme Court justice in state history, serving five terms.

Madsen was motivated to run after watching the confirmation hearing for United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill’s testimony. Hill alleged Thomas made inappropriate sexually charged comments at her when she worked for him.

“The disrespect that they treated her with was stunning,” she said. “Women in my profession were treated very much the same way as Anita Hill was treated in that Senate room.”

Madsen was the early chair of the statewide Gender and Justice Commission aimed at removing gender bias in law and justice. She also led the creation of the state’s Tribal-State Court Consortium, which brings together state and tribal courts to better communication.

Looking back at her over 30 years on the bench, Madsen is most proud of how she changed the status quo and made justice more attainable.

“Over time, and one thing that I really feel proud of to have been a part of, is to shift the focus toward the quality of the justice that’s coming from our system of justice,” Madsen said. “We’ve done that by focusing in on the way that the system works for regular people.”