Governor Ferguson appoints Spokane native Colleen Melody to Washington Supreme Court
Civil Rights Division Chief Colleen Melody to replace retiring Justice Mary Yu
 Washington State Supreme Court appointee Colleen Melody
OLYMPIA — Governor Bob Ferguson made his first appointment to the Washington State Supreme Court, announcing that civil rights attorney Colleen Melody will replace retiring Justice Mary Yu.
Governor Ferguson made the announcement today at the Temple of Justice. Photos of the event are available here.
Melody has led the Attorney General’s Office Wing Luke Civil Rights Division since Governor Ferguson created the division as Attorney General in 2015. Melody has helped make Washington state a national leader in defending civil rights. Over the past decade, she has led some of the state’s highest-profile and most impactful cases, including blocking President Donald Trump’s first Muslim travel ban.
“Colleen Melody has devoted her career to standing up for those who often don’t have a voice in our justice system,” Governor Ferguson said. “As Attorney General, I worked extremely closely with Colleen, where I had a front row seat to her immense legal skills, prodigious work rate, and passion for justice. Her public service has made our state and nation a more equitable place. She will make an excellent justice.”
“Thank you to Governor Ferguson for the honor of this appointment, and to Justice Yu being such an example of true public service,” Melody said. “Washington’s courts are cornerstones of our democracy. I look forward to working with all my judicial colleagues to ensure that Washington’s courts serve as a model of independence, excellence, and access to justice.”
Melody will succeed Justice Yu following her retirement at the end of the year.
“I have had the good fortune of knowing Justice Yu very well for a long time,” Governor Ferguson said. “Justice Yu is a historic figure in our state and a trailblazer in many ways. She leaves an impressive legacy and very big shoes to fill on this Court.”
Washington State Solicitor General Noah Purcell offered his “strongest possible recommendation” for Melody’s appointment. He wrote: “I can say without reservation that Colleen is a brilliant lawyer, a great colleague, an extraordinarily hard worker, a true public servant, and a skilled consensus-builder. I am confident that she will make profound contributions to the law, the Court and the community.”
A native of Spokane, Melody attended the University of Washington and the University of Washington School of Law, where she graduated first in her class.
Melody spent four years with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., investigating and litigating federal civil rights cases. Her work earned her the U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding New Employee and the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights’ Special Commendation for Outstanding Service.
In 2015, then Attorney General Ferguson hired her to lead the Washington State Attorney General’s Wing Luke Civil Rights Division. Melody presided over the division’s growth to 35 lawyers, investigators and professional staff, while also leading some of its most significant cases.
She helped lead Washington’s successful challenge to President Trump’s first travel ban, which barred the citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. This ruling, from a U.S. District Court Judge appointed by George W. Bush, established that states could stand up to the president in court and win.
Melody won the first temporary restraining order against the second Trump Administration in the legal challenge to President Trump’s attempt to revoke birthright citizenship, protecting the constitutional rights of everyone born in this country.
Her work on the litigation to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) led to a 2018 court order that is still protecting DACA recipients today. That case preserved the deferred-removal status and employment authorization for nearly 20,000 Washington Dreamers, allowing them to pursue an education, start businesses, get jobs and build families in what is, for many of them, the only home they have ever known.
Melody also helped protect the sovereignty and integrity of Washington’s courts by leading a successful legal challenge of the first Trump Administration’s practice of targeting our state and local courthouses to arrest non-citizens.
Melody has also practiced before the Washington State Supreme Court. She successfully argued State of Washington v. City of Sunnyside, which upheld the Attorney General’s authority to enforce civil rights laws on behalf of Washingtonians.
Melody was awarded the Legal Foundation of Washington’s Charles A. Goldmark Distinguished Service Award in 2018, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association Jack Wasserman Memorial Award in 2017. She received the Steward of Justice Award, the Attorney General’s highest honor, in 2018.
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