Reviewing all the notable criminal justice work of the Washington Supreme Court in recent times

Regular readers have likely noticed pretty regular posts about pretty notable criminal justice rulings coming from the Supreme Court of Washington. In this Slate piece, Mark Joseph Stern tells the story of this court's recent personnel changes and reviews some of these rulings. The piece, which is fully headlined "Washington State Shows How a Truly Progressive Court Changes Everything: Joe Biden should look to the state’s diverse and courageous Supreme Court when making nominations to the federal bench," starts this way (with links from the original):

The Washington Supreme Court is on a roll.  On March 11, it took the unprecedented step of outlawing mandatory sentences of life without parole for people under the age of 21 — making Washington the first state in the nation to extend such protections to defendants who, while technically adults at the time of their crime, have greater potential for rehabilitation because of their youth. The previous month, a majority of the court struck down Washington’s drug possession law, effectively legalizing possession of controlled substances while overturning thousands of convictions going back decades.  And, in January, the court made it easier for victims of police misconduct to sue law enforcement officers who violate their rights.

This extraordinary series of decisions shows how a diverse and progressive judiciary can make the country a more just and equitable place. The Washington Supreme Court’s members exemplify the kind of judges whom Joe Biden should be looking for as he prepares to announce his first slate of judicial nominees. To counter the current dominance of conservative ideology in the federal judiciary, liberals can’t rely on moderates committed to minimalism; they need a distinct vision of the law as a force of justice that guarantees equal rights and dignity to those who are impoverished, unpopular, and powerless. To find one, they need only look to Washington state.

Because it interprets its own state constitution, the Washington Supreme Court has much more leeway than a federal court to depart from SCOTUS jurisprudence.  States’ high courts have final say over the meaning of their own state constitutions, which gives justices room to expand rights that SCOTUS has constricted under the federal Constitution. Many state constitutions, including Washington’s, provide greater protections than the federal Constitution.  That’s why, in 2018, the Washington Supreme Court has permanently banned the death penalty and prohibited sentences of life without parole for juveniles—two steps SCOTUS has refused to take.

Those decisions were a preview of things to come. In 2019 and 2020, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee appointed two new justices to the court: Raquel Montoya-Lewis, a Jewish Native American woman, and Grace Helen Whitener, a disabled Black lesbian immigrant.  (In November, the state voted overwhelmingly to keep both women on the bench.)  There, they joined Justice Mary Yu, an Asian American Latina lesbian, as well as Steven González, the current chief justice, who is Hispanic, and one of just two men on the nine-member court.  Inslee’s appointees created the most diverse high court in American history.