How do judges of the Vermont Supreme Court reach the bench?

The court's current selection method is gubernatorial appointment.

Vermont Supreme Court / Joined 2014 / Active

Harold E. Eaton Jr.

Associate Justice, Vermont Supreme Court

Harold E. Eaton Jr. is an Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, serving since 2014. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1955 · age 71
Tenure: Since 2014 · 11 yrs

Judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
2014	Vermont Supreme Court	–	–

Education

University of Vermont
Vermont Law School

Judicial Record

In our data, Eaton authored 100 published opinions for the court (2015–2019), plus 8 dissents and 6 concurrences. Most cited: David A. Gauthier v. Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. f/k/a Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (63 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge. 114 of these were attributed to Eaton by a unique court-, date-, and surname-match against our roster (marked ), because CourtListener recorded no author for them. Each links to the official text to verify. How we match.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2015	David A. Gauthier v. Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. f/k/a Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.†	2015 VT 108	63
2017	Shires Housing, Inc. v. Carolyn S. Brown and William A. Shepard, II†	172 A.3d 1215	37
2017	In re Confluence Behavioral Health, LLC Conditional Use to Operate a Therapeutic Community Residence Program (Jason Albert, Appellants)†	180 A.3d 867	35
2015	In re Request for Jurisdictional Opinion re: Changes in Physical Structure and Use at Burlington International Airport for F-35A†	198 Vt. 510	30
2018	In re Mahar Conditional Use Permit (Mary Lahiff, Carolyn Hallock, Susan Harritt and William Butler, Appellants)†	183 A.3d 1136	26
2017	In re Anthony Bridger· Dissent†	176 A.3d 489	24
2018	H. Brooke Paige v. State of Vermont†	205 A.3d 526	23
2018	In re Korrow Real Estate, LLC Act 250 Permit Amendment Application (State of Vermont, Appellant)†	187 A.3d 1125	22
2015	State v. Kent Richland, Jr.· Dissent†	2015 VT 126	22
2019	Elizabeth Lawson v. Patricia Halpern-Reiss and Central Vermont Medical Center†	212 A.3d 1213	21
2019	Gregory W. Zullo v. State of Vermont†	205 A.3d 466	21
2015	In re A.M., Juvenile†	2015 VT 109	20
2019	State of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources v. Parkway Cleaners†	210 A.3d 445	19
2015	In re M.K. Juvenile†	198 Vt. 233	19
2018	Michael D. Messier v. Kay H. Bushman and The Standard Fire Insurance Company d/b/a Travelers†	197 A.3d 882	18

Showing the 15 most-cited of 114 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

How do judges of the Vermont Supreme Court reach the bench?: The court's current selection method is gubernatorial appointment.
Which court is Harold E. Eaton Jr. on?: Harold E. Eaton Jr. is an Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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11 years on the Vermont Supreme Court. Data as of 2026-03-31. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).