New state Supreme Court justice lives a busy life on Vashon

Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, December 16, 2025

The press release announcing the newest appointment to the state’s highest court last month was headlined: “Governor Ferguson appoints Spokane native Colleen Melody to Washington Supreme Court.”

But the governor’s press office could have put it differently. It could have announced that a Vashon resident was just named to the state’s highest court.

Melody, who moved to Vashon in 2015, is the busy mother of two young daughters, both of whom performed in “The Nutcracker” at Vashon Center for the Arts earlier this month. Her husband, Zach Hoit, is a project manager at McIntyre Construction, a Vashon company. They live in the woods near Paradise Valley.

And on Jan. 1, she’ll become the ninth member of the state’s high court, the final arbiter on all manner of legal issues and an increasingly important body at a time when many are alarmed by the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Melody will replace retiring Justice Mary Yu, a trailblazer in the judiciary for the past 25 years. The court she’s joining has been hailed nationally for both the diversity of its bench and the progressive nature of its rulings — an example, according to Slate magazine, of how a state court “can make the country a more just and equitable place.”

“It’s a tremendous honor,” she said of her selection.

But Melody, 43, is no stranger to high-profile cases that capture national attention. For the past 10 years, she headed the state attorney general’s office’s Wing Luke Civil Rights Division, where she led the team that successfully challenged President Trump’s first travel ban shortly after he took office in 2017. She and her team worked round-the-clock over a frenzied weekend, filing an appeal three days after Trump issued his far-reaching executive order.

More recently, her office was again in the vanguard, this time working long hours on a tight deadline to challenge Trump’s attempt to revoke birthright citizenship. Her office was the first to win a temporary restraining order against Trump’s controversial move. The U.S. Supreme Court recently announced it will take up the issue.

In 2015, Gov. Bob Ferguson, then the state’s attorney general, hired Melody to helm what was then a newly created civil rights division.

He has selected her to fill Yu’s seat on the Supreme Court from a pool of 16 applicants, he said, because of her strong work ethic, legal acumen and commitment to social justice.

“Colleen Melody has devoted her career to standing up for those who often don’t have a voice in our justice system,” he said in a news release. “As attorney general, I worked extremely closely with Colleen, where I had a front-row seat to her immense legal skills, prodigious work rate and passion for justice. Her public service has made our state and nation a more equitable place.”

Melody, who graduated first in her class from the University of Washington Law School, has never served as a judge before — unusual but not unheard of for a state Supreme Court justice. She said she hopes to bring a different kind of background to the high court — centered on her work helping people gain access to justice, listening to community concerns and understanding the impact of laws on ordinary citizens.

Over the years, first as a lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and then in the state attorney general’s office, she has brought several cases on behalf of marginalized people — farmworkers facing sexual harassment, people harmed by police misconduct, low-income residents facing housing discrimination.

In the process, she says, she has learned the value of sitting down with those who are hoping to find redress and listening deeply to their issues: “It’s the best way to understand how justice works or needs to work in a particular community.”

Her practice has underscored the importance of access to justice — the fact that status and money should not determine who gets their day in court, but the validity of one’s claim, especially in the face of tough odds. “We focus on cases that are unlikely to be brought by an individual — on claims too difficult to bring because the entity is too powerful,” she said.

One such case centered on the city of Sunnyside, where her office alleged that the city police department used the city’s Crime-Free Rental Housing Program to evict people, without a court order, over unsubstantiated claims of crime or nuisance. Most of those evicted — Latinx, women and families with children — became homeless as a result, according to the attorney general’s office.

The procedurally complex case ended up before the state Supreme Court last year, where Melody successfully argued that the attorney general’s office had the authority to pursue the legal action, affirming the power of the office to work to protect the civil and constitutional rights of residents. It’s now back before the Yakima County Superior Court for trial.

Melody acknowledged that it will be hard to walk away from her practice as a civil rights lawyer, where several of her cases — supported, she stressed, by a team of legal professionals — have had a far-reaching impact. “It’s very hard. It’s bittersweet,” she said.

But serving on the Supreme Court will give her a different kind of role to play in the administration of justice, she said. Not only will she help to decide cases — writing or joining decisions that will shape law across the state — she’ll also help to administer all of the state’s trial and appellate courts, working on issues as diverse as language access, sentencing disparities, the impact of legal financial obligations and how best to fund public defense.

“About half the job is on those kinds of court administration issues. … That’s a major piece of work that may not be as visible but is critically important,” Melody said. “It’s one of the main reasons I decided to seek appointment.”

Many cheered Ferguson’s decision to appoint Melody to the high court, noting her brilliance as a lawyer and her determination to fight for people who lack power and resources. Among those who celebrated her appointment is Dave Horn, also a Vashon resident and Ferguson’s former chief deputy; he helped to hire her in 2015.

What made her stand out, Horn recalled, was not only her keen analytical skills and hard work but also what he called “her thirst for justice.” Washington was behind other states in civil rights litigation when Ferguson and Horn hired her to launch the new division. That quickly changed under Melody, he said.

“Right off the bat, she became a presence, both in the office and across the state,” he said. “The business community became aware of her. She got their attention. It was like there was a new sheriff in town.”

That background will serve her well on the high court, he predicted. “I think she’ll push this court in a rigorous direction,” he said. “I don’t know anyone on the court who has a background like hers.”

Melody will have to run for election next fall to fill the remainder of Yu’s unexpired term, which runs through 2028. She said she needs to learn the mechanics of how to run for office but is looking forward to campaigning: “The part about getting around the state and talking to folks is something I love.”

Meanwhile, she said, she plans to continue her busy life on Vashon, juggling kids, maintaining friendships and relishing what she called “the small-town nature” of Vashon Island. She and her husband decided to move from their loft in Pioneer Square to Vashon 10 years ago after visiting friends on the island on “one of those idyllic days in June … when it seemed every child was running through a sprinkler,” she recalled.

She continues to enjoy her life here, she added. “I like the quiet,” she said. “It’s nice to come home to a peaceful place.”

Leslie Brown is a former editor of The Beachcomber.