M. John Kane IV
2019 - Present
2027
5
M. John Kane IV is a judge of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2019. His current term ends on January 11, 2027.
Kane ran for re-election for judge of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 3, 2020.
Kane was elected chief justice of the court by his peers for a two-year term beginning on January 1, 2023.[1]
Governor Kevin Stitt (R) appointed Kane on September 17, 2019, to succeed Justice John Reif, who retired April 30, 2019.[2] To read more about judicial selection in Oklahoma, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Kane received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Kane received a B.S. in agricultural economics and accounting from Oklahoma State University in 1984 and a J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1987.[5] Kane was an assistant district attorney from 1987 to 1989, and an attorney in private practice from 1987 to 2005. He was also an administrative law judge for the Department of Human Services-Child Support Division from 1999 to 2005. Kane was the Office 1 judge of the 10th District Court in Osage County Oklahoma from 2005 to until he was appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2019.[6][7][5]
Elections
2020
Oklahoma Supreme Court
M. John Kane IV was retained to the Oklahoma Supreme Court on November 3, 2020 with 68.9% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
68.9
|
952,811 | ||
No |
31.1
|
430,580 | |||
Total Votes |
1,383,391 | ||||
|
|
2018
See also: Municipal elections in Osage County, Oklahoma (2018)
General election
The general election was canceled. M. John Kane IV (Nonpartisan) won without appearing on the ballot.
2014
- See also: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2014
- See also: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2014
Kane ran for re-election to the Tenth District Court. He defeated Phil Best in the general election on November 4, 2014, receiving 75.0 percent of the vote.[7]
2010
- Main article: Oklahoma judicial elections, 2010
Kane was re-elected to the district court after running unopposed.[8]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
M. John Kane IV did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
M. John Kane IV did not complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[9]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[10]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
John
Kane
Oklahoma
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican as of 2020
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Kane was a registered Republican as of 2020. He was appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) in 2019 while the state of Oklahoma was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Oklahoma
- See also: Judicial selection in Oklahoma
The nine justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. Each justice is appointed by the governor from a list of three names compiled by the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission.[11][12]
The appointed justice serves an initial term of at least one year, after which they must stand for retention during the next general election. Subsequent terms last six years.[11][13]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:
- at least 30 years old;
- a qualified voter in his or her respective district for at least one year; and
- licensed to practice for at least five years in the state (or have five years of service as a judge of a court of record).[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by peer vote, serving in that capacity for two years.[11]
Vacancies
If a justice retires before the end of his or her term, the vacancy is filled just as it normally would be, with the governor appointing a successor from a list of names provided by the nominating commission. If the appointment is not made within 60 days of the vacancy, the chief justice is responsible for selecting a replacement.[14] The appointed justice then must stand for retention in the next general election after he or she has served one year on the bench to serve out the remainder of his or her predecessor's term.[11][13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ Oklahoma Supreme Court, "Swearing-In Ceremony," accessed January 31, 2023
- ↑ AP, "Oklahoma governor appoints Kane to state Supreme Court seat," September 17, 2019
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Legal Span, "Judge M. John Kane, IV," archived October 21, 2014
- ↑ Oklahoma State Courts Network, "Osage County and Judges," archived July 8, 2013
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Oklahoma State Election Board, "Candidates for State Elective Office 2014," archived March 20, 2016
- ↑ Oklahoma State Board of Elections, "Candidates for State Elective Office 2010," archived July 19, 2016
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Oklahoma," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma State Courts Network, "Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Justia, "Section VII-B-5," accessed September 22, 2021
- ↑ Oklahoma Public Research System, "Section VII-B-4: Vacancy in Judicial Office - Filling," accessed September 22, 2021
Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Oklahoma, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Oklahoma • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Oklahoma, Northern District of Oklahoma, Western District of Oklahoma
State courts:
Oklahoma Supreme Court • Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals • Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals • Oklahoma District Courts • Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court of Existing Claims
State resources:
Courts in Oklahoma • Oklahoma judicial elections • Judicial selection in Oklahoma
