State Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis, the first Native American elected statewide in Washington’s history, won’t seek reelection for a second term on the high court.
Montoya-Lewis has been on the court since 2020. She’ll serve out her term, which ends Dec. 31, leaving the seat open for election this year.
It means there will be elections for at least two open state Supreme Court seats this fall, as Justice Charles Johnson is stepping aside.
Montoya-Lewis announced her decision to colleagues Thursday and publicly Monday. She didn’t give a clear reason why she was leaving, but said the role has been an “honor.”
“I am excited for the coming year on the court and then continuing my career answering the call to do justice, a call I have followed throughout my career,” Montoya-Lewis said in a statement.
“While I will step away from my work as a justice at the end of 2026, I have no plans to retire,” she continued. “I look forward to writing books, teaching and mentoring law students, lawyers and judges, and building and learning new ways to create a more equitable world.”
Montoya-Lewis, 57, is a member of the Pueblo of Isleta tribe and a descendant of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe, both of which are in New Mexico. Upon her appointment by then-Gov. Jay Inslee, she was believed to be the second Native American state Supreme Court justice in the country.
The state Supreme Court is going through a period of turnover.
Last year, Justice Sal Mungia joined the bench after a tight election for the seat vacated by the retirement of the late Susan Owens.
Justice Mary Yu retired last year, leaving a seat open for Gov. Bob Ferguson to appoint. He tapped Colleen Melody, who was the civil rights division chief at the attorney general’s office. In that role, she worked for years under Ferguson in his time as attorney general. She was sworn into the court last week, and will be up for election this year to serve the remainder of Yu’s term through 2028.
And Johnson, the court’s longest-serving active justice, is set to retire as he turns 75 this year. The state constitution requires justices to retire at the end of the calendar year in which they turn 75. Johnson has been on the court since 1991.
King County Superior Court Judge Sean O’Donnell and David Shelvey have filed for election to replace Johnson. Shelvey ran for the seat Mungia won in 2024 and finished a distant fourth in the primary.
On Monday, Division 1 Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Diaz filed to run for Montoya-Lewis’ seat. Inslee appointed him to the appellate court in 2022. Before that, Diaz was a King County Superior Court judge. President Barack Obama had nominated him to the U.S. District Court bench in western Washington, but the nomination expired without U.S. Senate confirmation.
In 2022, Montoya-Lewis took medical leave from the court before later returning.
Before joining the Supreme Court, she served five years on the Whatcom County Superior Court. Inslee’s appointment of Montoya-Lewis to that position made her the only Native American judge serving on a superior court in Washington. And before that, she was a tribal court judge for multiple tribes in the region.
She also taught at Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College. She’s been a major advocate for implicit bias training among court officials.
While on the court, she authored notable opinions to keep children with Native American heritage with their families and expand protections to stave off racism in civil court cases.
Writing for Seattle Met in 2020, the justice recalled a reporter asking her what she would tell people who thought she got a leg up for her Supreme Court appointment due to her heritage.
“Every time I’ve done well in anything, people want to chalk it up to being given some kind of special treatment. And the reverse has been true,” Montoya-Lewis wrote. “In my experience, I have had to overcome other people’s views about my abilities rather than being given some sort of extra credit for being Native.”