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Per-judge retention calls inside
The ballot
Maryland appellate judges are appointed by the governor, confirmed by the Senate, and then face the voters in a nonpartisan yes-or-no retention election for a 10-year term. A majority of YES votes retains the justice. The election is November 3, 2026. One Supreme Court justice is up — and an important structural fact shapes this guide: Maryland's Supreme Court justices represent appellate judicial circuits, and this justice's retention question appears only on ballots in the 4th Appellate Judicial Circuit (the seat he holds), not statewide, despite the "statewide" label on the compiled roster. Maryland has no judicial performance evaluation program — no commission, no published bar poll for retention judges — so the evidence is the documented public record: appointment record, prior service, news coverage, and any controversy that meets the proven standard. This guide worked all of it.
Justice Peter Killough (4th Appellate Judicial Circuit)
Appointed by: Governor Wes Moore, July 26, 2024; sworn in July 31, 2024; confirmed by the Maryland Senate 38–2 on February 3, 2025. He is standing for his first retention vote, after about two years on the Supreme Court.
The road here (credits): University of Virginia J.D. 1989; attorney at Carter Ledyard & Milburn (1989–2006); senior attorney at Ford Motor Company; then a decade in the Maryland Attorney General's office — counsel for the People's Insurance Counsel Division and director of the Maryland Medicaid Fraud Unit. In the People's Counsel role he challenged Allstate's withdrawal of new homeowners' policies in coastal Maryland, argued for ending judicial deference to insurers' own readings of their policy terms, and backed legislation against forced bundling by insurers — a documented consumer-side record. Governor Larry Hogan appointed him to the Prince George's County Circuit Court in 2017 (sworn in January 2018), where he served six years before elevation.
Dirt column — two documented episodes, both printed at their proven size:
- Juvenile-docket removal (2022). In September 2022, Prince George's County Administrative Judge Sheila Tillerson Adams removed Killough as the court's lead juvenile-case judge following complaints that he was too lenient on youth offenders. That is a documented administrative action based on documented complaints — a real entry in this column. It is equally documented that he was not disciplined, not removed from the bench, and continued as a circuit judge until the governor elevated him and the Senate confirmed him 38–2 with this episode in the public record.
- The Halloween display (2025). In November 2025, Fox News reported partisan-message lawn signs at Killough's home — Halloween gravestones reading "Here lies the Constitution," "RIP Freedom of Speech," "RIP Due Process," "RIP Climate Science," and similar — while the court was considering Baltimore's climate-liability suit against oil companies, Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. BP. A former Arizona Supreme Court justice argued publicly that the climate sign showed bias requiring recusal. The Maryland Judiciary's spokesperson stated the signs belong to Justice Killough's wife and that the justice had no further comment. Proven at this sourcing depth: the display existed, the criticism was made, and the judiciary's attribution is to his spouse. Not proven: that Killough authored or endorsed the signs, or that he acted on any case under their influence. This guide prices what is proven and labels the rest as what it is — critics' inference, marked UNPROVEN as to the justice himself.
Evaluation: None exists in Maryland — no commission and no poll. There is no evaluation failure in this file because there is no evaluation to fail.
OUR CALL
Peter Killough — RETAIN.
Our standard is the same in every state in this coverage: Retain for a serviceable documented record; Do Not Retain requires proven cause — documented misconduct, proven activist judging, or an evaluation failure. Killough's file has two real dirt-column entries and neither meets that bar. The juvenile-docket removal was an administrative reassignment over sentencing philosophy in one case category, not a misconduct finding — and the political system that knew about it confirmed him to a higher court 38–2 afterward. The Halloween display is, on the only sourced attribution, his wife's speech; removing a justice for his spouse's lawn signs would punish him for expression that is not proven to be his, and no source documents him ruling under its influence. His affirmative record — a decade of consumer-protection and Medicaid-fraud enforcement and six years on a busy circuit bench — is documented and serviceable. Voters in the 4th Circuit who price the leniency complaints or the display differently have the full record above; this page's call, on the proven standard, is Retain.
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Sources
- Peter Killough — biographical record (AG's office People's Counsel and Medicaid Fraud Unit; Hogan circuit-court appointment November 30, 2017, sworn January 5, 2018; juvenile-docket removal September 2022; Moore Supreme Court appointment July 26, 2024, sworn July 31, 2024; Senate confirmation 38–2, February 3, 2025) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Killough
- Fox News Digital (November 2025), via Free Library — Maryland Supreme Court justice in hot seat over politically charged Halloween display (the signs; the Baltimore v. BP pendency; the judiciary spokesperson's statement that the signs belong to his wife; the Gould recusal criticism) — https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Dem-appointed+Maryland+Supreme+Court+justice+in+hot+seat+over...-a0862099718
- Maryland State Archives — Supreme Court of Maryland roster (Peter Killough, 4th Appellate Circuit, 2024– ) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_judges_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_Maryland
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.