Virginia Chief Justice Kinser to Step Down

Kinser with George Allen - 2011

Virginia Chief Justice Cynthia Kinser has announced that she will step down from the court this year.  Kinser, who was a law school classmate appointed to the court by our mutual classmate, George Allen, proved herself to be no friend of LGBT equality when I argued before the Court in Moore v. Virginia Museum of Natural History and, indeed seem outraged by my suggestion that anti-gay discrimination should be ruled illegal under Virginia's laws banning employment discrimination based on religious belief.  As the plethora of same sex marriage cases have made clear, the sole motivation to discriminate and against gays always proves to be religion.  Sadly, Kinser displayed a mindset much like that of the members of the Virginia Supreme Court who twice upheld Virginia's ban on interracial marriage before the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in an struck down the law in Loving v. Virginia.  Virginia has a long history of being on the wrong side of history and Kinser maintained that tradition during her tenure on the Court.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

The first female chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court plans to retire this year.

Justice Cynthia D. Kinser — first appointed to the state’s high court in 1997 and elected by her peers as chief justice in February 2011 — announced in a news release that she intends to step down from her post this year. Kristi S. Wright, a court spokeswoman, said Kinser wants to spend more time with her husband and travel.

Kinser, a Lee County, Va., native who received her law degree from the University of Virginia, was the first woman to be selected as chief justice of Virginia’s Supreme Court. She worked previously as a federal magistrate judge and as the commonwealth’s attorney for Lee County.

The Court continues to be reactionary overall and one can only hope that Gov. McAuliffe will nominate a replacement who understands that Virginia needs to move forcefully into the 21st century rather than try to maintain the 19th century.