Barbara Madsen

Barbara A. Madsen (née Rupnick; born March 1, 1952) is an American lawyer who has served as an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court since 1993. She joined the court in 1993 as the first woman to be popularly elected to the Court in Washington state history. She was re-elected in 1998, 2004, 2010, and 2016. In her years on the Washington Supreme Court, Madsen has sat in judgement on thousands of cases.

On November 5, 2009, Barbara Madsen was unanimously elected by her peers to serve as Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court. She was sworn in as Chief Justice on January 11, 2010, replacing retiring Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander. She served two terms as Chief Justice, the second longest serving in Washington state history.

Madsen was born in Chicago, the daughter of Edward John and Marion Durkin Rupnick. She moved as a child to Renton, Washington, and graduated from Hazen High School. After attending Western Washington University, she graduated from the University of Washington in 1974, and in 1977, she earned her Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University School of Law. She married Donald Madsen in 1980, and they would have four children.

After completing law school, Madsen worked as a public defender in King County and Snohomish County. In 1982, she joined the Seattle City Attorney's Office and was appointed Special Prosecutor in 1984. Seattle Mayor Charles Royer appointed Madsen in 1988 to the Seattle Municipal Court bench. After serving as the Presiding Judge of the Seattle Municipal Court, she ran for the Washington Supreme Court in 1992 to fill the vacancy left by retiring Justice Fred H. Dore.

In October 2018, Madsen concurred when the majority invalidated the state's death penalty. The court found its imposition to be racially biased and therefore in violation of the Constitution of Washington.