Cynthia D. Kinser

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cynthia D. Kinser (born December 20, 1951) is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia who was elected by the Virginia General Assembly to her first first 12-year term in 1998 after being appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy in 1997. She received her bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Tennessee in 1974, and her law degree from the University of Virginia in 1977. Prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court by then-Governor George Felix Allen, Kinser served, along with Allen, as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Glen M. Williams, Western District of Virginia from 1977-78. Allen and Kinser had also been law school classmates. She then entered lawyer private practice from 1978-79 and served as Commonwealth's Attorney for Lee County, Virginia from 1980-1984. She returned to private practice from 1984-1990. She served as a U.S. magistrate judge, Western District of Virginia from 1990-1997. She succeeded Justice Roscoe B. Stephenson, Jr..

At the ceremony announcing her appointment, Gov. Allen said of Justice Kinser, "She believes the purpose of judges is to interpret law, not to make it." Kinser, in her remarks, responded, "It is for the legislature to pass laws and, as a judge, it is not for me to agree or disagree but to apply the law to the facts of a case." Following news of her appointment, Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, a Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates, said that, though he was not familiar with Kinser's credentials. "Given the source, I would assume that she's no screaming liberal, and that she reflects Governor Allen's point of view."

According to news reports at the time of her appointment, Kinser's motto is "To make the best better" from 4-H, the youth agricultural organization in which she was active.