CHIEF JUSTICE KINSER TO RETIRE

[Posted June 13, 2014] Chief Justice Cynthia Kinser has notified her colleagues that she will retire from the Supreme Court. The court has issued a written notice that states that she will step down as early as this year, though in my view, next February (the end of her term as chief justice) is more likely.

I’ll confess that my first reaction to this news was dread; since she’s nowhere near mandatory-retirement age, I worried that her decision was health-related. I’ve since received word from a couple of quarters that such concern is misplaced, and this is not a health-based decision.

My worry has since turned to happiness for the very gracious lady who leads our judiciary. I have no inside information about the basis for her decision, but I suspect that she simply thought it was time. In addition to serving as a full-time jurist, she continues to work her family farm. While I’ve never been a farmer, I come from a long line of them on both sides of my family, so I know that agriculture is every bit as time consuming as is a career in the law. In addition, given her time as a Commonwealth’s Attorney in Lee County, she no doubt has plenty of VRS service time in the books.

I’ll add my voice to the chorus of congratulations that are no doubt arriving at Ninth and Franklin right now.