Janet Stumbo

Janet Lynn Stumbo (born October 21, 1954) is a former justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals , the second woman to ever serve on the court. From 1993 to 2004, she was an justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court , becoming the first woman elected to that court.

Stumbo graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1980 and spent nearly a decade practicing law before making her first bid for public office in a special election for a seat on the Kentucky Court of Appeals. During the race, she was criticized for not taking the surname of her husband, but running instead under her maiden name of Stumbo, which is well-recognized in Eastern Kentucky , due to the political careers of former Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo and former gubernatorial candidate Grady Stumbo , both distant relatives. Stumbo won election to the court, but the issue of her last name would continue to be raised in most of her future campaigns. Typically seen as a consumer- and defendant-friendly judge, she was re-elected to the court without opposition in 1991. In 1993, she was elected to the Kentucky Supreme Court, defeating two opponents, including Sara W. Combs , who had become the court's first female justice via an interim appointment by Governor Brereton Jones months earlier.

On the Supreme Court, Stumbo helped establish a family court system in Kentucky. She continued to be sympathetic to defendants' rights, and acquired a reputation as the court's most liberal member. She was re-elected without opposition in 1996, but was narrowly defeated in 2004 by Will T. Scott in a campaign that saw the weakening of restrictions on candidates' statements regarding their views on issues that they might later adjudicate. In 2006, Stumbo defeated incumbent David A. Barber to return to the Court of Appeals. In a rematch of their 2004 race, Stumbo challenged Scott for his seat on the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2012, but lost by over 20,000 votes. In 2014, Stumbo turned back a challenge from Kent Varney to earn another eight-year term on the court.

Contents

• 1 Early life and family

• 2 Political career

  • 2.1 Kentucky Court of Appeals (1989–1993)

  • 2.2 Kentucky Supreme Court (1993–2004)

  • 2.3 Interim and return to the Court of Appeals

• 3 Honors

• 4 See also

• 5 References

Early life and family

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Janet Stumbo was born October 21, 1954, in Prestonsburg, Kentucky .

Her father, Charles Stumbo, was a hospital official. She is a distant cousin of Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo and Grady Stumbo , a former Kentucky gubernatorial candidate.

During Stumbo's childhood, the family moved to the Floyd County community of Left Beaver Creek, where Charles worked for McDowell Appalachian Regional Hospital . When Janet was 10 years old, the family moved to Williamson, West Virginia , when Charles took a job at Williamson Appalachian Regional Hospital in South Williamson, Kentucky . Janet attended grade school in West Virginia , but the family later moved to South Williamson, and Janet graduated from Belfry High School in 1972.

After graduation, Stumbo enrolled at Morehead State University as an art major, but ultimately earned a bachelor's degree in literature and linguistics in 1976. She completed one year of graduate school at the University of Kentucky before being accepted into the College of Law , where she earned a juris doctor in 1980. She began her legal career as a staff attorney for appellate court judge Harris Howard. In 1982, she entered the law firm of Turner, Hall & Stumbo in Floyd County.

She specialized in divorces, workers' compensation , federal black lung claims, and personal injury cases. Arnold Turner, one of the partners in the firm, was then serving as county attorney for Floyd County, and Stumbo served as his assistant from 1982 to 1986.

In 1983, she joined the board of directors of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, which provides legal services for poor residents of Eastern Kentucky .

The following year, she was named chair of the board, a post she held until 1989. In 1989, she joined her husband in the law firm of Stumbo, DeRossett & Pillersdorf.

Stumbo married Ned Pillersdorf in 1984; they have three daughters – Sarah, Nancee and Samantha.

Because she was already part of a law firm that incorporated her maiden name, Stumbo chose not to take her husband's surname after their marriage.

Political career

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Kentucky Court of Appeals (1989–1993)

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