Oklahoma 2022 judicial retention

A few notes on the four Oklahoma Supreme Court justices and five Court of Civil Appeals judges on the retention ballot this year. None of the five members of the Court of Criminal Appeals are up for retention this year.

Judges in Oklahoma's appellate system are up for retention every six years. I am voting to retain Gov. Stitt's recent appointees on both courts, against retention not only of judges appointed by Democrats, but also of two Republican appointees who have shown questionable judgment, whether on the bench or in a public role away from the courtroom. As originalists now have a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and are restoring state freedom to legislate on a number of issues, we can expect progressive judicial activists to move their focus to state courts as a means to overturn legislation grounded conservative public sentiment. Now more than ever, conservative voters need to ensure that our state courts are safely in the hands of impartial, originalist judges.

Two of the Supreme Court justices, Dana Kuehn and Dustin Rowe, are recent appointees by Gov. Stitt. Justice Rowe has written several careful dissents indicating a willingness to take a stand on principle and reason, even if it puts him in the minority. It makes sense to give both of Stitt's appointees the opportunity to continue.

Justice James R. Winchester was in the majority that unjustly tossed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) initiative petition. Pro-life activists remember that Winchester, a Keating appointee, consistently voted to strike down pro-life laws and initiative petitions that might have been used to give the U. S. Supreme Court the opportunity to revisit and overturn Roe v. Wade; instead that honor fell to the State of Mississippi. This year, Winchester voted in favor of putting recreational marijuana on the ballot, despite the same issue of supremacy of federal law (in this case, an actual law banning marijuana, rather than a fatally flawed SCOTUS decision resting on emanations and penumbras).

I recommended against retaining Justices Winchester and Combs in 2016. They should both be retired by the voters, giving a re-elected Gov. Stitt the chance to add to his list of excellent court appointments.

For the Court of Civil Appeals, I'm voting to retain Stacie L. Hixon, Gregory C. Blackwell, and Thomas E. Prince, all recent appointments by Gov. Stitt. Judge Prince served for many years as a member of the Oklahoma State Election Board. I am voting NO on retaining John F. Fischer, appointed by Brad Henry, and Barbara G. Swinton, appointed by Mary Fallin.

Civil Appeals Court Judge Barbara Swinton was serving as a district judge in Oklahoma County when she was appointed to the Civil Appeals court in 2016 by Gov. Mary Fallin.

Swinton was a long-time board member of the Justice Alma Wilson Seeworth Academy, a school chartered by Oklahoma City Public Schools. Swinton served on the board from around 2002 until the school's closure in 2019, serving at various times as board president, vice president, and treasurer, according to Swinton's 2021 interview with Brenda Holt of the State Auditor's office. Seeworth closed its doors in May 2019 . Last month, the school's superintendent, Janice Grigg, was arrested and charged with embezzlement:

Annual school audits as early as 2009 warned the board of possible law violations and a troubling lack of internal controls meant to prevent fraud, state auditors said.

A 2012 lawsuit from a former Seeworth principal and auditors' letters in 2017 and 2019 communicated concerns over possible abuse of school funds. Finally in March 2019, a longtime Seeworth contractor sent a whistleblower letter to Swinton, the school board president at the time, alleging financial wrongdoing by Grigg, according to the state audit.

Auditors found an email in which Swinton appeared to dismiss the allegations.

"Thank you for your concerns about the financial health of Seeworth," she wrote to the whistleblower in a March 10, 2019, email. "These concerns were addressed by our board with our accountants and you should not have any concerns that the funds are being mishandled."

NonDoc's reporting from 2019 about the mistreatment of whistleblowers by the Seeworth board puts Judge Swinton in an especially bad light.