Holder retiring from Tenn. high court
Justice to step down next year; how vacancy is filled uncertain
NASHVILLE — Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Janice M. Holder of Memphis announced Wednesday she will retire from the court at the end of her term Aug. 31, 2014, raising more legal questions about how appellate judge vacancies will be filled.
Holder, 63, was the third woman to serve on the state’s high court and was the first woman to serve as the court’s chief justice, from 2008 to 2010.
She was elected Circuit Court judge in Shelby County in 1990, where she served until then-governor Don Sundquist appointed her to a vacancy on the Supreme Court in December 1996. She won a statewide retention election in August 1998 and was re-elected in 2006 to her current eight-year term.
“It has been my privilege to serve the people of Tennessee as a trial judge and Supreme Court justice — and an honor to have been selected by my fellow justices as the first female chief justice in our state’s history,” she said.
But the state legislature’s failure this year to renew the Judicial Nominating Commission and its statutory process for nominating candidates to fill vacancies on the state’s three appellate courts, plus a lawsuit challenging the nominating process, have thrown into confusion how Gov. Bill Haslam will choose a successor to Holder. The commission, which would normally interview applicants and send three nominees to the governor, ceases to exist Sunday night.
Michele Wojciechowski, the court’s spokeswoman, said the commission won’t submit nominees for the seat because it doesn’t have enough time to ask for applications and hold interviews and public hearings.
The governor “is working to determine what next steps should be taken,
if any, as a result of Justice Holder’s decision,” his press office said.
Nashville lawyer John Jay Hooker, who filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the selection process, said the state’s likely failure to conduct an election in August 2014 for Holder’s seat means officials are “calling off an election required by the state constitution.” He lost a similar case Monday in Circuit Court here but is to argue it on a broader scale July 19 to a Special Supreme Court appointed to hear the case when the regular Supreme Court recused itself.
The legislature could resurrect the commission next year in time to select nominees to fill vacancies that won’t exist until several months later.
Holder won praise for her work. Chief Justice Gary R. Wade said she “has practiced the art of judicial restraint, writing concise, authoritative opinions, and never reaching beyond the issues presented to the court. Much lies ahead in her professional career, but at the end, I will simply miss a respected colleague and a dear friend.”
Wade also said Holder has been “a courageous champion of the rights of all women, a compassionate leader in the Access to Justice initiative, a staunch proponent of the lawyers’ assistance program, and a dedicated servant to the people of this state.”
Those efforts were the focus of her advocacy of access-to-justice issues — finding ways to provide legal services to those with civil legal needs but who cannot afford them. Holder was instrumental in developing the Court’s Access to Justice Commission and the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program, which helps those in the legal profession address health and personal issues. The Tennessee Bar Association awarded her its Outstanding Judicial Service Award this month for her work on those two programs.
“Working to provide legal services to those who could not otherwise afford such services has been some of the most satisfying work of my career,” she said.
Born in Canonsburg, Pa., Holder graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971. She received her law degree from Duquesne University in 1975 and served as senior law clerk to the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.