Washington state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander announced Tuesday he will step down next year from his post and serve out the remainder of his term as an associate justice.

Alexander, the state’s longest-serving chief justice, is set to retire at the end of 2011, the year in which he will reach the mandatory retirement age of 75 for judges. He will stay a justice on the nine-member court for the last two years of his term.

“I am immensely proud of our Court, and I feel this is the perfect time to turn this position over to one of my able colleagues,” Alexander said in a written statement.

The chief justice presides over the court’s public hearings, serves as the administrative head of the state’s judicial branch, and is the court’s main spokesperson. The new chief justice will be selected by an internal election of the members of the court in early November, sworn in in January and fill the remainder of Alexander’s current term.

The Associated Press