FRANKFORT, Ky., Nov. 30, 2022 – The Supreme Court of Kentucky will dedicate a portrait of Justice Janet L. Stumbo (ret.) at a ceremony Tuesday, Dec. 6. The dedication will take place at 2:30 p.m. ET in the Supreme Court Courtroom on the second floor of the Capitol. The public is invited.
The portrait will hang in the corridors of the second floor of the Capitol.
Justice Stumbo retired from the bench at the end of 2017 after 26 years of service to Kentucky’s appellate courts. The Floyd County native was elected to serve a district of 22 Eastern Kentucky counties.
Kentucky artist Tona Barkley created Justice Stumbo’s portrait and will unveil it with Justice Stumbo’s two daughters at the dedication ceremony.
About Justice Janet L. Stumbo (ret.)
Justice Stumbo was the second woman ever elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals and the first woman from the 7th Appellate District. She was the first woman elected to the Supreme Court of Kentucky without having first been appointed.
Justice Stumbo served the counties of Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Elliott, Floyd, Greenup, Harlan, Johnson, Knott, Lawrence, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Owsley, Perry, Pike, Powell, Rowan and Wolfe.
She was first elected to the Court of Appeals in 1989 and to the Supreme Court in 1993. She was reelected to the Supreme Court in 1996. After finishing her term on the Supreme Court and taking a short break from the bench, Justice Stumbo was elected to the Court of Appeals for a second time in 2006. She was reelected for another term in 2014.
Justice Stumbo is a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame at the University of Kentucky College of Law (now the J. David Rosenberg College of Law) and at Morehead State University. Among the honors she received during her career were the Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the Kentucky Bar Association for Women and the Bull’s Eye Award from the Women in State Government Network. The Kentucky Women Advocates awarded her with its Outstanding Justice Award for her support of adopting gender fairness into state judicial language and its Justice Award for her use of spousal abuse evidence as grounds for setting aside settlements in divorce cases and for her support in creating a shelter for abused women in Floyd County.
Supreme Court of Kentucky
The Supreme Court is the state court of last resort and the final interpreter of Kentucky law. Seven justices sit on the Supreme Court and all seven justices rule on appeals that come before the court. The justices are elected from seven appellate districts and serve eight-year terms. A chief justice, chosen for a four-year term by fellow justices, is the administrative head of the state’s court system and is responsible for its operation. The Supreme Court may order a ruling or opinion to be published, which means that the ruling becomes the case law governing all similar cases in the future in Kentucky.
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