Judicial Reform

Oklahoma voters oust Supreme Court justice

November 6, 2024

Ray Carter

For the first time in state history, Oklahoma voters have chosen to oust a sitting member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

When the votes were tallied on November 5, a majority of Oklahoma voters casting a ballot—723,329—voted against the retention of Justice Yvonne Kauger.

On July 11, 1967, Oklahoma voters passed State Question 447, which altered the method of judicial selection in Oklahoma and established routine retention elections for higher-level judges, including members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

However, in the 57 years since then, Oklahomans have rarely had information provided about the judges facing retention elections, and no sitting justice on the Oklahoma Supreme Court had ever been ousted until this year.

But in the 2024 election cycle, there was a robust campaign waged with significant campaign spending by officials on both sides of the retention question.

Two other justices, James Edmondson and Noma Gurich, were retained but prevailed by small margins.

Of the more than 1.4 million votes cast, Edmondson was retained by a margin of 29,253 votes, according to unofficial returns. Gurich was retained thanks to a margin of 7,555 votes.

And support for the two justices’ ouster was strong across most of Oklahoma. A majority of voters in 69 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties supported removing Gurich from the bench, while voters in 66 counties voted to oust Edmondson, a ratio in which six out of every seven Oklahoma counties supported the justice’s removal from the bench.

In their campaign communications, pro-retention officials often portrayed the justices’ opponents as being composed of “out of state” groups.

Yet it was the two most high-profile entities that funded pro-retention efforts who were based outside Oklahoma.

According to a recent report, Hands Off Our Courts was incorporated in Delaware while Protect Our Freedoms LLC was incorporated in Ohio. Both entities funded campaign communications urging Oklahomans to retain all three justices on the court.