Dan Jack Combs

American judge (1924–2002)

Dan Jack Combs (August 22, 1924 – May 25, 2002) was a judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1983 to 1989 and justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court from 1989 to 1993.

Combs rose to national prominence by successfully defending Appalachian Volunteers Margaret and Alan McSurely against charges of sedition in a case that took 15 years to fully adjudicate. After a long legal career, Combs unseated incumbent Elijah M. Hogge for a seat on the Kentucky Court of Appeals. In 1989, he challenged incumbent James B. Stephenson for his seat on the Kentucky Supreme Court. During the campaign, he attacked some of Stephenson's previous opinions in violation of a state judicial code that forbade judicial candidates from stating opinions related to cases they might later be asked to rule on. After the election, which Combs won, he was suspended for three months for violating the code, but the suspension was not carried out because Combs appealed the constitutionality of the code and eventually succeeded in overturning it.

Throughout his tenure on the court, Combs was known as being sympathetic to unpopular litigants and causes. He retired from the court in 1993, citing ill health stemming from a motorcycle accident and two strokes . In retirement, he was twice arrested on marijuana -related charges. He admitted using the drug medicinally to help with insomnia and became an advocate for its legalization. He died at home on May 25, 2002.

Early life and family

[(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Jack_Combs&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Early life and family")
]

Combs was born August 22, 1924, in Floyd County, Kentucky , to Albert Ghent and Hettie Gilliam Combs. His father worked in the coal mines and was killed in a rockfall , leaving his mother to raise him and his four siblings.

Combs served in the United States Naval Air Corps during World War II and was discharged in 1947. After helping combat flooding near the town on Betsy Layne , Combs and some friends purchased a bottle of whisky before returning home. Although Combs said he had only taken one drink, he was arrested for public intoxication ; he said he believed his muddied appearance led the arresting constable to assume he was drunk. In jail, he decided to forego re-enlistment in the Navy and enter the legal profession to correct what he saw as injustices in the legal system. After completing a law curriculum at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee , he was admitted to the bar in 1951 and began practice in his native Eastern Kentucky . He received his juris doctor degree from Samford University 's Cumberland School of Law in 1969.

Combs was married three times. He married his first wife, Mary Jane, in 1953. They divorced in May 1973. His second wife's name was Betty, and his third wife's name was Teresa.

McSurely case

[(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Jack_Combs&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: McSurely case")
]

Main article: Appalachian Volunteers § Strip-mining and the sedition controversy

Combs rose to national prominence by representing Margaret and Alan McSurely, two civil rights advocates. The McSurelys were part of an organization known as the Southern Conference Educational Fund, which advocated that the area's poor citizens band together to oust the incumbent political leaders and elect a "people's government." On August 11, 1967, Commonwealth's Attorney Thomas Ratliff and sheriff's deputies raided the couple's home in Pike County and arrested them on charges of sedition. The papers and other property seized in the raid was used by Arkansas Senator John Little McClellan in his investigations of civil disturbances in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement .

Combs held that the state's sedition law was unconstitutional and petitioned the federal judiciary to overturn it. Combs said he had reached an agreement with Ratliff not to seek indictments for the McSurelys until the constitutionality of the sedition law was settled; however, Judge James B. Stephenson instructed the grand jury that the federal government could not stop them from investigating and returning an indictment. The trial dragged on for years, with Combs appearing as a witness on the couple's behalf in 1982. The sedition law was eventually found unconstitutional, and on January 7, 1983, a federal jury awarded the McSurelys $2 million for violation of the Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure.

Judicial career

[(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Jack_Combs&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: Judicial career")
]

After 32 years in private practice, Combs was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1983, defeating incumbent Elijah M. Hogge by almost 4,000 votes. He served until 1988, when he was elected to the Kentucky Supreme Court over incumbent James B. Stephenson.

Just before the non-partisan [primary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpartisan_primary

…