“What’s the right thing here — and does our law allow us to get there? If not, how do we begin to build toward justice?”
“I love this job, but I trust the next generation too, and maybe 25 years is enough, and I really would like to have some time to just simplify my life, enjoy, sip coffee rather than gulp it every morning.”
With those reflections, Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu summed up the balance that has defined her 25 years on the bench — devotion to justice, tempered by faith in those who will follow. Now she’s ready to slow down. Known for her warmth and mentorship as well as her precision on the law, Yu will retire at year’s end, closing a trailblazing career.
For 25 years, Yu said she has worked to practice consensus in what she calls an adversarial process:“You have to fight for how you think the law ought to be,” she said in an Inside Olympia interview on TVW. “When we differ, we are at our best.”
Born on Chicago’s South Side to a Chinese father and Mexican mother, Yu was the first in her family to attend college. She began her career with the Archdiocese of Chicago before moving to Seattle, where King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng hired her as deputy chief of staff. She later became a Superior Court judge and, in 2014, the first Asian American, first Latina, and first openly gay member of Washington’s high court.
Yu said several cases stayed with her, including of now-lawmaker Tarra Simmons — where the court ruled that a felony record shouldn’t prevent someone from becoming a lawyer — which affirmed rehabilitation and redemption, and State v. Sum, which recognized race as a factor in police encounters.
A champion of equality and inclusion, Yu also presided over more than 1,000 same-sex adoptions and one of the first same-sex marriages in the state.
“Maybe my legacy,” she said, “is simply that I believed in the next generation.”