Richard Sanders

Richard Sanders

Nonpartisan

Prior offices

Washington State Supreme Court Position 9

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Education

Bachelor's

University of Washington

Law

University of Washington School of Law

Richard B. Sanders was a justice on the Washington Supreme Court. Sanders was first elected to the Supreme Court by special election in 1995. In 1998 and in 2004 he was he was re-elected to serve six-year terms each. His term expired in 2010.

Biography

Sanders was born in Tacoma and later moved to Seattle, where he attended Highline High School. Sanders graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in political science and earned his J.D. in 1969 from the university's law school. While there, Sanders wrote a weekly column titled The Devil's Advocate in the student paper.

As an attorney in private practice, Sanders "became best known for representing builders and property owners battling land-use constraints," according to the Seattle Met. At the time of his 1995 election to the state Supreme Court, The Seattle Times described Sanders as a land-use attorney.

Following his election to the state Supreme Court, Sanders joined the University of Washington School of Law as an adjunct professor, where he taught classes on apellate advocacy.

Elections

2012

Sanders ran unsuccessfully for position 9 on the Washington Supreme Court. This seat was held by retiring Justice Tom Chambers. He advanced from the primary election on August 7 after winning 27.48% of the vote, but was defeated by Sheryl McCloud in the general election on November 6th, receiving 44.76% of the vote.

See also: Washington judicial elections, 2012

Ratings

• Rated as Qualified by the Justice for Washington Foundation
• Rated as Well Qualified by the King County Bar Association

2010

Main article: Washington judicial elections, 2010

Sanders ran for re-election to the court in 2010. He was defeated by Charlie Wiggins, winning 49.66% of the vote.

• Read Sanders' Washington State Voters' Guide here.

Candidate	Incumbent	Seat	Election %
Charlie Wiggins A		Position #6	50.3%
Richard Sanders		Position #6	49.7%

2004

In this election, Sanders defeated Terry Sebring, winning 61.03% of the vote.

In his 2004 campaign, the Sanders campaign raised $190,559. The top three sectors in terms of who donated to his campaign were:

• Lawyers and Lobbyists with $39,915 raised
• General Contractors with $23,300 raised
• Home Builders with $16,190.

Candidate	Incumbent	Seat	Primary %	Election %
Richard Sanders A		Position #6	31.3%	61%
Terry Sebring		Position #6	19.2%	39%
James White		Position #6	17.8%
Steve Merrival		Position #6	6.4%
Doug Shafer		Position #6	15.9%
Fred L. Stewart		Position #6	9.3%

1998

Sanders ran unopposed in the general election in 1998. He defeated Greg Canova in the primary election.

Candidate	Incumbent	Seat	Primary %	Election %
Richard Sanders A		Position #5	63.7%	100%
Greg Canova		Position #5	36.2%

1995

Candidate	Incumbent	Seat	Election %
Richard Sanders A		Position #1	53.6%
Roselle Pekelis		Position #1	46.3%

Notable decisions

Same-sex marriage

In July 2006, the Washington Supreme Court determined in a 5 to 4 decision to uphold the state's Defense of Marriage Act. Of the six opinions issued, Sanders concurred with James Johnson in expressing that there exists, "a compelling governmental interest in preserving the institution of marriage."

Public disclosure

Sanders wrote the majority opinion in the January 15, 2009 ruling, Yousoufian v. Office of the King County Executive, which held that a lower court had not assessed a high enough fine on King County for what the high court said was the county's "blatant" and "egregious" violations of Washington's sunshine laws. On April 1, 2009, King County asked the court to re-hear the case. The county alleged that Sanders was prejudiced in his opinion about the case because at the same time he wrote the ruling, Sanders had a public-records lawsuit pending in Thurston County. King County Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Wright said, "A justice may not define the scope of rights under state law while simultaneously seeking to personally benefit from that law in other litigation." Sanders denies wrongdoing. He consulted with the court's ethics attorney before hearing Yousoufian. Sanders also says that he will not financially benefit from any additional fines imposed in the Thurston case, so that he does not have a financial conflict-of-interest. Seattle lawyer Thomas Fitzpatrick, a member of a committee that reviews the canons of the state's Code of Judicial Conduct, said Sanders does not have the type of financial interest in the Yousofian case that would have constrained him for hearing it. "He's not a party or related to a party in the case. To me, this is the kind of situation where [a judge] may want to think long and hard about it. But I don't think it's a violation of the canons."

Noteworthy events

Confrontation with Mike Mukasey

On November 20, 2008, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey gave a speech at the annual Federalist Society gathering in Washington, D.C. Mukasey collapsed during the speech. Just before Mukasey's collapse, Sanders stood up and yelled at him, "Tyrant. You are a tyrant." Justice Sanders confirmed this to journalist Michelle Malkin, "The program provided no opportunity for questions or response, and I felt compelled to speak out. I stood up, and said, 'tyrant,' and then left the meeting. No one else said anything. I believe we must speak our conscience in moments that demand it, even if we are but one voice." According to The Seattle Times, Justice Sanders' reason for doing so was "Mukasey's defense of the Bush Administration's counter-terrorism policies, particularly with respect to detainment policies and Geneva Convention interpretations, that solicited the outburst."

Admonishment for visit to corrections center

On April 8, 2005, Justice Sanders was formally admonished by the Commission on Judicial Conduct following a visit to a state corrections facility. Sanders was invited to a tour of a state-run sex offender treatment center on McNeil Island in January 2003. While there, he discussed the subject of volitional control (control over the urge to offend) with inmates after warning them not to discuss any specific cases before the court. The commission found the visit in violation of judicial ethics rules since justices are forbidden from discussing cases with litigants outside of a court setting and several of the inmates Sanders met had cases pending before the court. Sanders argued that the visit did not influence his views on any of the technical questions before the court and that he had received continuing judicial education credits for his participation. In addition to a formal admonishment, which is the least serious punishment the commission can issue, Sanders was barred from hearing cases related to volitional control for two years.

2016 Republican National Convention

See also: Republican National Convention, 2016

Richard Sanders
Republican National Convention, 2016
Status:	District-level Delegate
Congressional district:	7
State:	Washington
Bound to:	Donald Trump
Delegates to the RNC 2016
Calendar and delegate rules overview • Types of delegates • Delegate rules by state • State election law and delegates • Delegates by state

Sanders was a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Washington. Sanders was one of 40 delegates from Washington bound by state party rules to support Donald Trump at the convention. As of July 13, 2016, Trump had approximately 1,542 delegates. The winner of the Republican nomination needed the support of 1,237 delegates. Trump formally won the nomination on July 19, 2016.

Delegate rules

See also: RNC delegate guidelines from Washington, 2016 and Republican delegates from Washington, 2016

Delegates from Washington to the Republican National Convention were elected at the state convention in May 2016. Delegates were bound by the statewide primary results for the first round of voting at the national convention.

Washington primary results

See also: Presidential election in Washington, 2016

Washington Republican Primary, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Delegates
Donald Trump	75.5%	455,023	41
Ted Cruz	10.8%	65,172	0
John Kasich	9.8%	58,954	0
Ben Carson	4%	23,849	0
Totals		602,998	41
Source: The New York Times and Washington Secretary of State

Delegate allocation

See also: 2016 presidential nominations: calendar and delegate rules

Washington had 44 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 30 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's 10 congressional districts). Washington's district delegates were allocated proportionally; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the primary vote within a district in order to be eligible to receive any of that district's delegates. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the district vote, he or she received all of that district's delegates. If only one candidates broke the 20 percent threshold, that candidate received all of the district's delegates. If two candidates each won more than 20 percent of the district vote, the first place finisher received two of the district's delegates, and the second place finisher received one. If three candidates each received more than 20 percent of the district vote, each candidate received one of the district's delegates. If four candidates each won more than 20 percent of the district vote, the top three finishers each received one delegate.

Of the remaining 14 delegates, 11 served at large. Washington's at-large delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the statewide primary vote in order to be eligible to receive any of the state's at-large delegates. However, the at-large delegates were allocated in proportion to all candidates who were on the ballot, meaning, if only one candidate surpassed the 20 percent threshold and there were multiple candidates on the ballot, then some delegates could be allocated as unbound delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention.

External links

• Justice Richard B. Sanders website
• Richard Sanders on Vote Smart
• The Seattle Times, "3 Wash. Supreme Court justices seek re-election," July 24, 2010
• Follow the Money: Richard Sanders 2004
• The Washington Supreme Court blog, an unofficial blog that covers the Washington State Supreme Court and its justices
• The Seattle Times, "Supreme Court candidates Sanders, Wiggins spar in Seattle debate," September 28, 2010