Abbi Silver
Abbi Silver was a judge for Seat F of the Nevada Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2019. She left office on September 29, 2022.
Silver ran for election for the Seat F judge of the Nevada Supreme Court. She won in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Silver became a member of the court through a nonpartisan election. She was elected in 2018 to the seat vacated by Michael Douglas.[1] Silver resigned on September 29, 2022.[2] To read more about judicial selection in Nevada, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Silver received a confidence score of Indeterminate.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Silver earned a B.A. in political science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1986 and a J.D. from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, California, in 1989. She worked as a judicial law clerk before becoming chief deputy district attorney of the special victims unit in the Clark County district attorney’s office. In 2003, Silver was elected to the Las Vegas Municipal Court. She was elected to the Las Vegas Justice Court in 2006. In 2008, she was elected to the Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court, and she was re-elected in 2014.[5]
Silver was appointed to the Nevada Court of Appeals by Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) on December 17, 2014, and was sworn in on January 5, 2015.[6][7] She was one of three judges appointed to form the court, which was created by a voter-approved constitutional amendment. Silver became chief judge of the court on January 2, 2017.[8] She was elected to the Nevada Supreme Court unopposed in 2018.[5]
Elections
2018
- See also: Nevada Supreme Court elections, 2018
General election
General election for Nevada Supreme Court Seat F
Abbi Silver won election in the general election for Nevada Supreme Court Seat F on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Abbi Silver (Nonpartisan) | 71.5 | 614,353 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 28.5 | 245,226 | ||
| Total votes: 859,579 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
- See also: Nevada judicial elections, 2016
Silver ran unopposed for election to the Nevada Court of Appeals.[9]
General election
| Nevada Court of Appeals, Department 3, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Abbi Silver Incumbent (unopposed) |
71.50% | 673,303 |
| Write-in votes | 28.5% | 268,403 |
| Total Votes (100% reporting) | 941,706 | |
| Source: Nevada Secretary of State Official Results | ||
2014
- See also: Nevada judicial elections, 2014
Silver ran for re-election to the Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court (Dept. 15). She was elected without opposition in the primary on June 10, 2014.[10]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Abbi
Silver
Nevada
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Indeterminate - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- State was a Democratic trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Silver was a registered Republican as of 2020. She donated $100 to Democratic candidates. When she was elected, Nevada was a Democratic trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Nevada
- See also: Judicial selection in Nevada
The seven justices of the Nevada Supreme Court are elected to six-year terms in nonpartisan elections. When their terms expire, justices must run for re-election if they wish to remain on the court.[13]
Qualifications
To serve on the Nevada Supreme Court, a person must:
- be at least 25 years old;
- be licensed and admitted to practice law in Nevada, and have been licensed and admitted to practice law in the United States for at least 15 years, including at least two years in Nevada;
- be a qualified elector; and
- have been a state resident for at least two years preceding the election[14]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is chosen according to seniority. According to state law, if there are two or more eligible justices, the chief justice is determined by lot.[15] Alternatively, the internal operating procedures of the supreme court allow the possibility of an agreement between eligible justices.[16] According to the Administrative Office of the Courts in Nevada, often the eligible members of the court will agree to a lesser term as chief justice if there are multiple eligible justices in the last two years of their terms who want to serve in that capacity. Such agreements have been memorialized by a court order or other official document filed with the clerk.[17]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the Nevada Commission on Judicial Selection solicits and screens applicants. The commission presents a list of three nominees to the governor, who appoints one to fill the vacancy until the next general election. If the predecessor's term is not expiring that election cycle, the appointed justice must win the election to the court to serve the remainder of the unexpired term.[18]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Judge lands Nevada Supreme Court seat after no one else files," February 3, 2018
- ↑ Seattle PI, "Nevada Supreme Court justice tells governor she'll step down," August 29, 2022
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Supreme Court of Nevada, "Justice Abbi Silver," accessed July 2, 2021
- ↑ Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Two Vegas judges appointed to new state court of appeals," December 17, 2014
- ↑ The Record-Courier, "Gibbons first chief appeals court judge," archived March 14, 2015
- ↑ News 4, "Nevada Appellate Courts change leadership in 2017," December 16, 2016
- ↑ Nevada Secretary of State, "Silver State Election Night Results 2016," November 22, 2016
- ↑ Nevada Secretary of State, "Silver State Election Night Results 2014," July 15, 2014
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Nevada | Selection of Judges," accessed August 20, 2021
- ↑ Nevada Legislature, " NRS 2.020 Qualifications," accessed August 20, 2021
- ↑ Nevada Legislature, "NRS 2.030 Election; Chief Justice," accessed August 20, 2021
- ↑ Nevada Judiciary, "Nevada Supreme Court: Internal Operating Procedures," May 20, 2021
- ↑ This information was provided to Ballotpedia in an email from the Administrative Office of the Courts in Nevada.
- ↑ Administrative Office of the Courts, "FACTS and FAQs," accessed August 20, 2021
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Nevada • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Nevada
State courts:
Nevada Supreme Court • Nevada Court of Appeals • Nevada District Courts • Nevada Justice Courts • Nevada Municipal Courts • Clark County Family Court, Nevada
State resources:
Courts in Nevada • Nevada judicial elections • Judicial selection in Nevada