justices think retention is foregone conclusion

The Colorado Supreme Court thinks judicial retention elections are a joke. The justices know there’s no chance they’ll be voted out.
 
As this story explains, when current Chief Justice Nathan Coates retires in January, the Court will start setting a specific term length for the role of chief justice.
 
And the court has revealed the next two justices to succeed Coates in the role of chief justice. The first will be Brian Boatright. The second will be Monica Marquez.
 
Both Boatright’s and Marquez’s 10-year judicial terms expire in January 2025.
 
Boatright will be in office when Coates retires in January. But, depending on the term length the justices choose for chief justice, the question should be whether Marquez will be in office when she is to succeed Boatright.
 
The chief justice has been a role held until the justice retires. So, it’s usually been held for many years. Unless the justices select a term that is 4 years or less, it should be questionable whether Marquez is still on the court when it’s her turn to be the chief administrative judge of Colorado’s judicial branch.
 
But the justices obviously aren’t concerned in the slightest that Marquez will still be on the Court when it’s her turn.
 
Why would they be concerned? No appellate court judge has ever lost a retention election in Colorado.
 
Colorado is the only state where a separate judicial performance commission reviews appellate court judges. That means that the district performance commissions – the local commissions – don’t review Colorado’s Supreme Court or Court of Appeals judges.
 
The state commission on judicial performance makes it look like the district commissions review the appellate judges, but the district commissions do not do so.
 
With an insular commission reviewing them – a commission that’s never given an appellate court judge an unfavorable recommendation – the justices on Colorado’s Supreme Court have nothing to worry about.
 
And with all the controversy at the U.S. Supreme Court at present, we should note that when Coates is replaced in January, a Democrat governor will have selected all of Colorado’s Supreme Court justices.

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