In the United States, federal judges are always appointed and state judges may be either elected or appointed, depending on the state and the level of court. That split is the short answer to whether judges are elected or appointed, and everything else is a matter of which system applies to which bench.
Federal Judges Are Always Appointed
Every judge on an Article III court reaches the bench the same way. The President nominates, and the Senate confirms by a simple majority after Judiciary Committee hearings. The authority comes from Article II, Section 2, which gives the President power to “nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint…Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States.”1Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Article II
Once confirmed, Article III judges hold office “during good Behaviour,” which in practice means for life unless they resign, retire, or are impeached.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Article III This covers the Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, and the federal district courts. As of September 2025, Congress had authorized 179 appellate judgeships, 677 district court positions, and the nine Supreme Court seats.3United States Courts. Status of Article III Judgeships – Judicial Business 2025 Voters never weigh in on any of them.
The Constitution sets no qualifications for these positions. No age minimum, no citizenship requirement, no requirement that the nominee be a lawyer. In modern practice every nominee has been a licensed attorney, but that is convention, not law.
Bankruptcy and Magistrate Judges
Not every federal judge holds a lifetime appointment, and none of them are elected either. Bankruptcy judges are appointed by the federal court of appeals for the circuit where the court sits, and they serve 14-year renewable terms.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 152 – Appointment of Bankruptcy Judges Magistrate judges are appointed by the district court judges in their district and serve eight-year terms if full-time or four-year terms if part-time.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 631 – Appointment and Tenure Neither role is filled by the President or confirmed by the Senate, and neither goes on a ballot.
State Judges: Elected, Appointed, or Both
State systems vary widely. Some states elect their judges. Some appoint them. Many use a combination, where a judge is appointed first and then faces voters later in a different kind of ballot question.
Pure Appointment Systems
In some states, the governor fills judicial seats directly, sometimes subject to legislative confirmation. Two states, South Carolina and Virginia, let the legislature itself choose judges.6Ballotpedia. How Vacancies Are Filled in State Supreme Courts
A common variation is the commission-based approach often called the Missouri Plan. A nonpartisan nominating commission of lawyers and non-lawyers reviews applicants and sends the governor a short list, typically three names.7Missouri Courts. Nonpartisan Court Plan The governor picks from that list. In Missouri itself, if the governor fails to act within 60 days, the commission chooses. Many states have adopted their own versions with different commission structures or timelines.
Partisan Elections
In a partisan judicial election, candidates run with a party label printed next to their name. The races look much like other political campaigns: fundraising, advertising, debates, endorsements. Voters get an obvious cue about a candidate’s general outlook, but the judiciary ends up tied to the same partisan machinery the federal system was designed to avoid.
Nonpartisan Elections
Nonpartisan elections drop the party label from the ballot. Voters are asked to evaluate candidates on their individual records. Low-information judicial races often see voters skipping those ballot lines or picking based on name recognition, but the format is still an election in the usual sense: contested, with a winner and a loser.
Retention Elections
About 20 states use retention elections, most often paired with an initial appointment through a commission-based process.8Ballotpedia. Judicial Election Methods by State The judge is appointed, serves an initial term, and then faces voters in a yes-or-no question about staying on the bench. There is no opposing candidate. A judge who fails to win a majority of “yes” votes leaves at the end of the current term, and the seat goes back through the original appointment process.9Ballotpedia. Retention Election Removal through retention votes is uncommon in practice.
Winners of state judicial elections serve fixed terms rather than for life. For state supreme court justices, six-year terms are the most common, used in about 15 states. Twelve states use eight-year terms and another twelve use ten-year terms. The District of Columbia uses 15 years.10Ballotpedia. Length of Terms of State Supreme Court Justices Trial court terms tend to run four to six years.
What Happens When a State Judge Leaves Mid-Term
Even in states where judges are normally elected, most mid-term vacancies get filled by appointment. Twenty-nine states use commission-assisted gubernatorial appointment for supreme court vacancies, and seventeen use direct gubernatorial appointment.6Ballotpedia. How Vacancies Are Filled in State Supreme Courts The appointed judge usually has to stand for election at the next general election occurring at least a year after taking office.
A few states go another way. Louisiana fills vacancies through special elections. Illinois lets the state supreme court itself pick a replacement. So a judge in an “elective” state may in fact have arrived by appointment, at least the first time.
Why the Selection Method Matters
The choice between election and appointment changes what a judge can do outside the courtroom. Federal judges are bound by the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, which prohibits political activity under Canon 5. A sitting federal judge cannot hold office in a political organization, endorse candidates, contribute to campaigns, or buy tickets to a political fundraiser. A federal judge who decides to run for elected office has to resign the bench first.11United States Courts. Code of Conduct for United States Judges
State judges who campaign cannot be barred from all political activity, because campaigning is the job. Most states adopt some version of the ABA’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct, which stops judicial candidates from promising how they would rule on specific issues, from personally soliciting contributions (they must use authorized campaign committees), and from using court staff or resources for campaign work. Judges in partisan elections may identify with a party and attend party events. Judges in nonpartisan or retention races face tighter limits on party-related activity.
The design tradeoff is straightforward. Lifetime appointment is meant to insulate judges from political pressure. Elections are meant to keep judges accountable to the public. American courts use both approaches, sometimes on the same bench in the same state, and which one applies depends entirely on which court you are asking about.