Debra L. Stephens

Debra Leigh Williams grew up in Spokane, Washington. She graduated from West Valley High School, where she was student body president and a national "Century III Leader."{{Cite web |url=http://www.supremelaw.org/cc/wsba/stephens.debra/bio.htm |title=Washington State Courts - Supreme Court Bios - Justice Debra L. Stephens |access-date=2021-01-11 |archive-date=2021-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111225345/http://www.supremelaw.org/cc/wsba/stephens.debra/bio.htm |url-status=live }} In 2012, she was inducted into its alumni Hall of Fame. She graduated from Gonzaga University and taught speech communication and coached the debate team at Spokane Falls Community College before entering Gonzaga University School of Law as a Thomas More Scholar. She earned her J.D. degree with honors, graduating summa cum laude in 1993.{{failed verification|date=March 2022}}

After completing law school, Stephens served as a staff attorney for the Honorable Frederick L. Van Sickle, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington from 1993 to 1995. Stephens then went into private practice. From 1995 until April 2007 she helped coordinate the Amicus Curiae Program of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association Foundation. She also taught federal and state constitutional law, community property, appellate advocacy, and legal research and writing as an adjunct professor for Gonzaga University School of Law.

In 2007, she was appointed and then elected as a judge for Division Three of the Washington Court of Appeals. Judge Stephens was then appointed to the Washington State Supreme Court effective January 1, 2008. She was then elected in 2008 to the Washington Supreme Court and re-elected in 2014.

In October 2018, Stephens concurred when the majority abolished the state's death penalty because they found its racist imposition violated the Constitution of Washington.{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note|title=Recent Case: Washington State Supreme Court Declares Death Penalty Unconstitutional In Washington|volume=132|journal=Harv. L. Rev.|page=1764|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/1764-1771_Online.pdf|year=2019}}{{cite court|litigants=State v. Gregory|vol=427|reporter=P.3d|opinion=621|court=Wash.|date=2018|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8854659891232700142|accessdate=}}

On November 6, 2019, Stephens was unanimously selected to be the next Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court, following the retirement of Mary Fairhurst.{{Cite web |url=https://komonews.com/news/local/debra-stephens-elected-as-next-chief-justice-of-state-supreme-court |title=Debra Stephens elected as next chief justice of state Supreme Court |date=November 6, 2019 |website=KOMO |access-date=January 6, 2020 |archive-date=January 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111225408/https://komonews.com/news/local/debra-stephens-elected-as-next-chief-justice-of-state-supreme-court |url-status=live }}

Stephens was re-elected as an associate justice in 2020. She was succeeded as Chief Justice by Steven González on January 11, 2021.{{Cite web|title=Washington State Courts - News, Reports, Court Information|url=http://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/?fa=newsinfo.internetdetail&newsid=40716|access-date=2021-01-11|website=www.courts.wa.gov}}

Stephens and her husband, Craig, have been married since 1989, and have two children.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.courts.wa.gov/appellate_trial_courts/supreme/bios/?fa=scbios.display_file&fileID=stephens Washington Courts - Justice Debra L. Stephens]

{{s-start}}

{{s-legal}}

{{s-bef|before=Bobbe Bridge}}

{{s-ttl|title=Justice of the Washington Supreme Court|years=2008–present}}

{{s-inc}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Mary Fairhurst}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court}}|years=2020–2021}}

{{s-aft|after=Steven González}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Steven González}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court|years=2025–present}}

{{s-inc}}

{{s-end}}

{{Current statewide political officials of Washington}}

{{Current US state Chief Justices}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Debra L.}}

Category:1965 births

Category:21st-century American judges

Category:21st-century American women judges

Category:American Presbyterians

Category:American women academics

Category:Chief justices of the Washington Supreme Court

Category:Gonzaga University faculty

Category:Gonzaga University School of Law alumni

Category:Justices of the Washington Supreme Court

Category:Lawyers from Spokane, Washington

Category:Living people

Category:Politicians from Spokane, Washington

Category:Women chief justices of state supreme courts in the United States