Who is running for Oklahoma Supreme Court, District 1, Retention: Justice M. John Kane IV in 2026?

Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court, District 1

M. John Kane IV has been the District 1 justice on the Oklahoma Supreme Court since Governor Kevin Stitt appointed him in September 2019⁴. Before that he was the district judge for Osage County from 2005⁴. This is a nonpartisan retention question: voters answer yes or no on keeping the judge, and no party is listed on the ballot⁸.

• Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court, District 1, since 2019; sworn in as Chief Justice in January 2023 and served until Justice Dustin Rowe became Chief Justice on January 1, 2025³¹⁰
• District Judge, Osage County (10th Judicial District), 2005 to 2019; president of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference, 2013 to 2014; presiding judge of the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary in 2019⁴
• Administrative law judge for the Department of Human Services child support division, 1999 to 2005; assistant district attorney, 1987 to 1989; private practice at Kane, Kane and Kane in Pawhuska from 1987⁴
• JD, University of Oklahoma College of Law, 1987; BS in agricultural economics and accounting, Oklahoma State University, 1984⁴
• Appointed by Governor Kevin Stitt on September 17, 2019, to the District 1 seat left open by the retirement of Justice John F. Reif. The governor's office said Kane was one of three applicants the Judicial Nominating Commission sent to the governor⁴. Voters retained him in November 2020⁵. His current term ends January 11, 2027, so the 2026 vote decides whether he serves a new six-year term².
• Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice v. Drummond (March 21, 2023): in a 5 to 4 decision, the court's majority held that the Oklahoma Constitution protects a woman's right to end a pregnancy when necessary to preserve her life. Kane, then Chief Justice, was one of the four dissenting justices. In his separate dissent he wrote that there is no expressed or implied right to abortion enshrined in the Oklahoma Constitution⁷⁶.