Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
By Rhonda Crowder
COLUMBUS, Ohio-This is a one-on-one interview with Ohio Supreme Court Justice Sharon L. Kennedy, who is currently seeking re-election and is running for one of two open seats on the majority Republican, largely female, seven-member high court. She was elected to an unexpired term on the court in 2012 and then went on to win a six-year full term in 2014.
She describes herself as "a person who serves all Ohioans with a full heart."
Honesty is important to Justice Kennedy.
"I will tell people the truth. I want them to see someone who has given their life to 34 years of service, service to the people," she said.
Though she holds an undergraduate degree in social work, Kennedy began her career as a police officer, which eventually led her to law school, and then to a legal career where she worked as a solo practitioner who fought on behalf of families, juveniles and the less fortunate.
She later served as special counsel to former Ohio attorney general Betty D. Montgomery and as a magistrate in the Butler County Area Courts before being elected as a domestic relations judge at the Butler County Court of Common Pleas,
There she ultimately served as the administrative judge of the division.
She has served on the state's highest court for the past eight years, a court established by Article IV, Section 1 of the Ohio Constitution that allows for six justices and an elected chief justice who is currently Justice Maureen O'Connor, the court's first female chief justice.
In her nearly 35 year career, Kennedy has seen many facets of the legal system in Ohio.
"In my 34 years of diverse service, I've looked at the justice system from all sides," said Kennedy, 58.
She views the legal system as part of a continuum, thinking of it as being on a straight line.
She explained that most people are often on opposite ends of the spectrum.
"On one side you have judicial activism, and on the other side you have judicial restraint," the judge said.
Others are centrist thinkers, she continued, who are in the middle.
"I'm on the side of judicial restraint," said Kennedy, "and when I'm asked why, I remind everyone of the civic lesson."
That lesson, she explains, is the right to vote. It gives an equal voice to those who participate.
"In November, [we're] going to elect the men and women who serve [us] in the Statehouse or in Congress," she said. "You have the ability to pick up the phone and tell them there should be this law and not that law. Americans have shut down phone lines before whether in Washington or in Columbus advocating for a position."
Kennedy believes the last thing citizens need is for someone who wears a black robe to change the law in place of lawmakers, rather that giving it effect.
"As a judge, all I have are two people and merit briefs," Kennedy explained. "Should I really be the one changing the law? I believe my job is to read the text of the constitution or the law and give it effect."
And when a judge gives effect to the plain words or the statute, citizens have the ability, for instance relative to Ohio's laws, to go back to the general assembly and say, "I need this changed."
Judges, she said, should also work within the confines of the law, and other applicable authorities.
"If a judge is exercising power beyond his or her limited role, then he or she is acting beyond his or her power," Kennedy said
Party affiliation aside, some prominent leaders within Ohio's Black community believe Justice Kennedy is the better candidate over her male opponent because of her background and experience.
Bishop Eugene Ward, senior pastor of Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church in Cleveland and a longtime community activist, said that during these times of social unrest and legal social justice, he must support Justice Kennedy.
"I must look at my principles rather than my partisanship," said Rev. Ward. "My prayer is that I will stand with Justice Sharon Kennedy as she is re-elected to the Ohio State Supreme Court."
Kennedy said that "as a police officer in uniform for three and a half years, it gave me the ability to see what the court was like, what it meant to see trials, and lawyers and defendants."
She said she worked to put herself through law school because she wanted to advocate for people.
"I wanted to be the one at the podium speaking to a jury about the truth where a case was, what the evidence was. I became a criminal defense attorney to protect and defend people's constitutional rights," she said.
According to Kennedy, her undergraduate degree in social work informed her as a police officer, a lawyer and as an advocate trying to find pathways for the under served and the voiceless.
She has served on numerous boards, she said, "trying to find solutions to my community's problems" and reminds people that we're so much more than what we do as an occupation.
"Where do you spend your extra time? For me, it was partnering with juvenile court trying to find programming or develop programming that would help juvenile delinquents not end up in the Department of Youth Services (DYS), recognizing that if they ended up in an institution they were likely to be in an institution the rest of their life," said Kennedy.
She also spoke to young people about their dreams and how to achieve them as well advocated for young ladies to not be sent to DYS designed to house young men. She even partnered with Jobs and Family Services to help people including the formerly incarcerated become employable.
"Those were the things I worked on, those were the things that drove what I did at the trial court," Kennedy said. "That's what you do when you truly believe you're on a mission to help people."
And, that work has continued while on the Ohio Supreme Court.
"I truly believe it's my calling to help people with the problems they bring to me," said Kennedy, who believes justices have an obligation to go out and talk to people to break down the mystic of what they do. I think I'm an individual with an open door, willing to take a call."
Jerry Primm, member of G-PAC, a greater Cleveland political action committee that has endorsed Kennedy, agrees.
"She is a justice for all. She has made herself available to the Black community unlike her opponent who has avoided the Black community. She is not afraid to answer the tough questions. She's the truth," said Primm.
Among a long list of others, Kennedy is also endorsed by the Black Women's Political Action Committee of greater Cleveland and she is recommended for re-election by the Cleveland NAACP.
Supporting veterans, touring prisons to see what holistic reentry looks like for veterans and having conversations about race coupled with listening to people has been important to her over the course of her career.
Kennedy said that judges must also give back to the larger community.
"If that's not what we're doing with the other part of our life, then we're not living it to its fullest," Kennedy said. "I believe I'm living my purpose-driven life, doing the important work of the court but using my compassionate view of the world and helping people heal holistically. That's why I think I'm the better candidate."
Kennedy wants people to not judge her by a label, White, a former police officer, and a Republican, but to look at her as a person, and someone who is a compassionate and empathetic individual who wants to do good for all people.
She said people come into the criminal justice system when all other societal institutions fail them. And, when they come into her system, she can't turn anyone away.
"I can be that judge who picks up a case file, decides it and turns it over and goes on to the next or I can be that judge who looks at the case file and looks at the person inside that file and says how can I improve their life," said Kennedy.
The justice prefers the latter.
"That's the person I am/ I go to groups. I talk to people. I have tough conversations. And, I'm not shy about it," she said.
