Law: Gov. Otter picks 4th district judge to fill vacancy on Idaho Supreme Court; appointment draws criticism

BOISE — Joel Horton, a Nampa native and presiding 4th District judge, was named Tuesday as a new Idaho Supreme Court justice by Gov. Butch Otter.

Horton, 47, will fill the seat vacated by former Justice Linda Copple-Trout, who retired Aug. 31. Some legal experts were concerned that Trout’s retirement would leave the state’s highest court without a woman. Only one other state — Indiana — holds that distinction.

“His insightful legal scholarship, keen intelligence, integrity and independence will make him a great asset to the court,” Otter said.

Otter chose Horton over fellow 4th District Judge Darla Williamson, 3rd District Judge Juneal Kerrick from Canyon County and Coeur d’Alene attorney Kenneth Howard.

“Although it’s a tremendous honor to be appointed it’s also profoundly humbling,” Horton said. “Justice Linda Copple-Trout served with distinction. ... I will do everything in my power to uphold her legacy.”

Trout lauded Otter’s choice, calling Horton’s appointment “marvelous.”

“I think he is very well-qualified in terms of intelligence and abilities and breadth of experience, and he has a wonderful temperament,” Trout said. “I think he is a wonderful addition to the court.”

Peg Dougherty, the vice president of the Idaho Women Lawyers organization, said Otter’s decision to appoint a man to Trout’s seat “puts the state at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting smart women lawyers to the state.”

“Idaho Women Lawyers is extremely disappointed that the governor did not take advantage of this opportunity to show leadership and place a woman on the Idaho Supreme Court,” she said.

Horton, who also made the short list for an open Idaho Supreme Court seat that Otter gave to Justice Warren Jones earlier this year, is a Nampa native with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and a law degree from the University of Idaho.

He will serve the remainder of Trout’s term, which expires in January 2009, and will stand for election in May 2008, according to Otter’s statement.

Otter said he didn’t fill the seat with an eye for gender. Instead, the governor said, he looked for balance on the court and considered the applicant’s ratings by the Idaho Judicial Commission and the comments from their colleagues.

“I didn’t see this as a gender seat. What I looked for was the best candidate,” Otter said. “These were four great candidates and we did an awful lot of work; we really made an effort.”

When Otter advised Judges Williamson and Kerrick that they had not been given the appointment, he “begged them if there was another open seat,” to reapply, the governor said.

Horton is extremely qualified, Dougherty said.

“I don’t want my comments to come across as anything disparaging or negative to Judge Horton. But I don’t see how appointing another male to that seat gives our court the balance that the governor is talking about,” she said.

“It’s a very large segment of the population that’s not being represented on the court, and I don’t think that anyone can dispute that a woman’s perspective is different than a man’s perspective.”

Horton, however, said he didn’t think gender would be an issue in the high court’s rulings.

“My flip answer is that as a male, I wouldn’t know,” Horton joked.

“But my instinct is that’s more important at the trial court level,” where domestic violence crimes and similar cases are typically heard, he said. “On the Supreme Court, it’s about understanding the written law.”

Horton said he was surprised to be selected by Otter. He said the governor was brave to “ignore political reasons” whether geographical or gender-based, in making the appointment. Some groups favored Howard, who is from northern Idaho, as a way to keep some geographic diversity on the high bench, he said.

“There is not going to be any special interest group that is going to be applauding my appointment,” Horton said.

After earning his law degree from the University of Idaho, Horton worked in private practice in Lewiston. Then he worked in Twin Falls, moving to Ada County in 1988 to serve as a deputy prosecuting attorney.

In 1991 he left the prosecutor’s office for a brief stint in the Idaho Attorney General’s office, but Horton said he missed working on the big crime cases he saw in Ada County and decided to go back to his old job.

“Lightning struck in 1994 and I was appointed to the family law bench as a magistrate in Ada County,” Horton said. “And I was appointed by Saint Phil (then-Gov. Phil Batt) to the district court in 1996.”

His first task will be to make sure his cases in Ada County are wrapped up, Horton said, so he can move to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible.