Oklahoma’s appellate court judges – especially the Oklahoma Supreme Court – can have an enormous effect on people yet most of the voters on November 3 have no information or opinion about these judges.
The Supreme Court judges rule on gambling compacts, the legitimacy of candidate filings, initiative petitions, absentee ballots, legalization of abortion, redistricting, the U.S. Census, homosexual marriage, and a host of other issues in Oklahoma.
Judges from these three courts don’t run against opponents but instead are subject every six years to retention votes.
In 2018, all of state appellate court judges on the ballot were retained with a little more than one million votes cast. The Oklahoma Supreme Court justices were Justice James Edmondson (59%); Justice Patrick Wyrick (62%); Justice Yvonne Kauger (62%) and Justice Noma Gurich (62%).
On the Civil Appeals Court, Judge E. Bay Mitchell (62%0, Judge Robert D. Bell (62%), Judge Kenneth Buettner (63%), Judge Barbara Swinton (64%) and Judge Brian Jack Goree (61%) were retained in 2018.
In 2018, these judges on the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals were retained: Judge Scott Rowland (62%), Judge David B. Lewis (62%) and Judge Dana Kuehn (65%).
Since his election in 2018, Gov. Kevin Stitt, R-Tulsa, has appointed two justices to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Justice Dustin P. Rowe filled the vacancy for District 2 created by former Justice Patrick Wyrick’s appointment to become a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. He also appointed Justice M. John Kane IV.
Here is information on the judges on the retention ballot on November 3.
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 1, Justice M. John Kane IV
Kane formerly was a district judge in Osage County as District Judge for the 10th Judicial District. He was appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, R-Tulsa, in 2019 to fill the vacancy for District 1 created by the retirement of Justice John F. Reif.
Kane was president of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference from 2013-2014, presiding judge-elect of the Northeastern Judicial Administrative District in 2019, and presiding judge of the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary in 2019. Kane was as an administrative law judge for the Department of Human Services-Child Support Division from 1999-2005 and as an assistant district attorney from 1987 to 1989.
In 2010, Kane was re-elected to the district court after running unopposed. In 2014, he got 75 % of the vote and beat Phil Best in the general election on November 4.
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 6, Justice Tom Colbert
Colbert was appointed to the court in 2004 by Gov. Brad Henry, D-Shawnee, and was retained by voters in 2008 and 2014. He is the first black person to be named to the Supreme Court.
Colbert had been chief judge of the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals. He was appointed to that court by former Gov. Frank Keating, R-Tulsa.
He was an assistant dean at Marquette University Law School from 1982- 1984, and an Assistant District Attorney in Oklahoma County from 1984- 1986, before entering private law practice at Miles-LaGrange & Colbert from 1986-1989.
Oklahoma Supreme Court District 9, Richard Darby
Former Gov. Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma City, appointed Darby in 2018. He replaced former Justice Joseph Watt, who retired in 2017.
Darby was a district judge for Jackson, Kiowa, Tillman, Greer, Harmon, Cotton, Comanche, Caddo and Canadian counties. He was re-elected to that position in 2014 without opposition. He previously was an associate district judge.
Darby is married to Dana Darby, superintendent of Altus Christian Academy, and their son Ben is with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals District 2, Robert L. Hudson
Hudson was appointed in 2015 by Gov. Fallin. In 1996, Gov. Keating appointed him as district attorney for Payne and Logan counties. He was re-elected in 2011. He then became first assistant attorney general. In 2012, he was named special judge in the 9th Judicial District (Logan and Payne counties).
He was a commissioner for the OSBI for almost 10 years. He is a deacon in the First Baptist Church of Guthrie.
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals District 3, Gary L. Lampkin
Lampkin was appointed to the court in 1988 by former Gov. Henry Bellmon, a Republican. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, he reached the rank of colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve.
Lampkin was an attorney for the Oklahoma Department of Consumer Affairs. He was a district court judge in Madill.
Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals District 1 – Office 2, Jane Wiseman
Wiseman was appointed to the court in 2005 by former Gov. Brad Henry, D-Shawnee. She was retained in 2006 and 2014. She was named a special judge in Tulsa County in 1977. In 1981, she became a district judge in Tulsa County in the Civil Division and Family Relations Division.
In 2014, she promoted the overturning of Oklahoma’s Defense of Marriage Act (part of the Oklahoma Constitution) by the U.S Supreme Court. She officiated the ceremony of the first legalized homosexual marriage in the state (between two women from the Tulsa World).
Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals District 2 – Office 1, Deborah Barnes
Barnes was appointed by Henry in 2008. She was retained in 2010 and 2014. From 1997 to 2001, Judge Barnes was vice president, associate general counsel, and corporate secretary for Oneok Inc. in Tulsa. In 2002, she re-entered private practice in Tulsa until 2008 when she was appointed to the Court of Civil Ap- peals.
Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals District 2 – Office 2, Keith Rapp
Rapp was appointed by former Gov. George Nigh, D-McAlester, in 1984. Rapp formerly was a public defender n Broken Arrow and a municipal judge in Bixby. He was an alternative judge in Tulsa and later a judge on the 14th District Court in Tulsa County. He served two aircraft carrier tours off Korea and Formosa as a navigator/bombardier and as an instructor of Sino- Soviet Relations and Atomic and Biological Warfare in the Naval Reserves.
In the 2014 retention vote, Barnes (62%), Lumpkin (64%), Wiseman (60%), Rapp (59%) and Colbert (62%) were all retained.