Upcoming retirements from Massachusetts’s top court may provide Governor Maura Healey with an opportunity to bring new faces to the bench. It was recently announced that Supreme Judicial Court Justice David Lowy will retire in February 2024, marking the second high-profile departure following Justice Elspeth Cypher’s announcement that she would retire in January of the same year.
This effectively provides Democratic Governor Maura Healey a chance to appoint her preferred candidates to the vacancies, potentially influencing the future direction of the state’s judiciary. Of note is that the seven-member court currently consists entirely of Republican-appointed justices, though they notably lean more liberal than their counterparts in other states.
Justice David Lowy, who has served as an associate justice since August 2016, acknowledged his departure as the end of more than twenty-six years of service to the Commonwealth, seven of which were spent as a Justice.
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