With Governor’s Mansion And Legislature Already In Hand, Oklahoma Conservatives Take Aim At State Supreme Court

A conservative think tank is trying to use a routine retention vote to gain even more control over the state government by ousting three justices appointed by Democratic governors.

OKMULGEE, Okla. — The television ads look and sound like any others that inundate voters’ living rooms in the final weeks before an election. Ominous music. Faded, unflattering official profile pictures. An authoritative voice attacking the ad’s subjects, saying they added “millions to the costs of doing business” in the state and are “activist” liberals. Then there’s the opposing ad praising the same people, saying they “protected our public schools” and “stood up for our children.”

But the hot race in Oklahoma is not the presidential election (Trump won handily in 2020 and will likely do so again in 2024), or even a race for a Senate or governor’s seat. No, the big election on the ballot this November is whether to oust three sitting justices on the nine-member state Supreme Court, something that has never been done since the vote on judges was first instituted in the 1960s.

Tossing the three judges — Yvonne Kauger, Noma Gurich and James Edmondson, all of whom were appointed by Democratic governors — would allow conservative Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt to name new ones, who would presumably be more favorable to his agenda, which includes favoring charter schools and challenging tribal legal authority on Native American reservation land.

That means a “no” vote on retaining the justices would consolidate power even more thoroughly in the hands of Republicans in Oklahoma, which has had a GOP trifecta — Republican control of both parts of the legislature, plus the governor’s mansion — since 2011.

Republicans hold 81 of the legislature’s 101 House seats and 40 of the Senate’s 48 seats.