Justice Mary Yu reflects on a 25 year-career on the Washington state bench

After a quarter century on the bench, Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu is ready to slow down — to “sip coffee rather than gulp it,” as she puts it. The longtime jurist will retire at the end of this year, closing a trailblazing career.

From the King County Superior Court to the state’s highest bench, Yu said she found that justice often emerges from respectful clashes of perspective. “This is an adversarial process — you have to fight for how you think the law ought to be,” she told host Austin Jenkins in an “Inside Olympia“ interview on TVW. “When we differ, we are at our best.”

After 14 years on the King County Superior Court, Yu was appointed to the Washington Supreme Court by Gov. Jay Inslee in May 2014, becoming its first Asian American, Latina and openly gay justice. She went on to win elections in November 2014, 2016 and 2022, serving 12 years on the high court and 25 years on the bench overall.

Born on Chicago’s South Side to a Chinese father and a Mexican mother, Yu was the first in her family to attend college. Her path to law began at the Archdiocese of Chicago, where she joined the new Office of Peace and Justice as a secretary and later became its director. The work, focused on systemic social justice, shaped her understanding of inequality and change. “The law can bring about social change,” she said. “It creates, frankly, a cause of action if you’re discriminated against — a way to make justice real.”

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/11/09/justice-mary-yu-reflects-on-a-25-year-career-on-the-washington-state-bench/