Colleen Melody appointed to the Washington State Supreme Court by Gov. Bob Ferguson
The highly respected civil rights lawyer brings her "brilliant legal mind" to fill a vacancy after Justice Mary Yu’s retirement.
Colleen Melody says she’s had two job interviews in the past 10 years, and both resulted in hires by Bob Ferguson. Photo courtesy of Bob Ferguson via Facebook.
When Gov. Bob Ferguson, ’89, needed to fill a vacancy on the Washington State Supreme Court, he turned to a fellow UW alum to replace the retiring Justice Mary Yu. The selection of longtime civil rights lawyer Colleen Melody, ’04, ’09, means that four of the nine current justices are UW alumni.
Melody has headed the Wing Luke Civil Rights Division of the Washington state attorney general’s office since 2015. Ferguson, who was then attorney general, selected Melody to create the division to fight discrimination in such areas as housing, employment, credit and education. At a Nov. 24 news conference announcing his selection, Ferguson said Melody “has a brilliant legal mind” and earned a well-deserved reputation for being a “creative problem solver and a fearless defender of democracy.”
Melody earned two degrees from the UW: her bachelor’s degree in Law, Societies & Justice and Spanish as well as her J.D. from the UW School of Law, when she graduated at the top of her law class.
Melody joins three UW graduates on the bench in the Temple of Justice in Olympia.
- Associate Chief Justice Charles W. Johnson, ’74, is the longest-serving state Supreme Court justice, having been appointed in 1991.
- Justice Barbara A. Madsen, ’74, who was elected to the bench in 1992 as the third woman to serve as a justice.
- And Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis, ’95, ’96, who in 2020 was appointed to the bench by Gov. Inslee, ’73, as the first Native American to serve on the state’s highest court. She won election for a full six-year term in 2020, becoming the first Native American to win statewide office in Washington. She is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Isleta and a descendant of the Pueblo of Laguna, two federally recognized tribes in New Mexico.
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- Charles W. Johnson
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- Barbara A. Madsen
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- Raquel Montoya-Lewis
Other Supreme Court justices have ties to the University of Washington. Justice Salvador A. Mungia served as a mentor for the UW Tacoma’s Legal Pathways program. And newly retired Justice Mary I. Yu co-chaired the Washington State Bar Association/University of Washington Law School Leadership Institute and was on the advisory board of the UW School of Law’s Gates Public Service Program from 2014-2018.