Supreme Court Candidates

Letitia "Tish" Chafin
Party: Democratic NOT Participating in Public Funding
After graduating from Brooke High School in the Northern Panhandle, Tish attended and graduated with honors from Marshall University and the WVU College of Law. Since 1996, she has practiced at a law firm in Southern West Virginia where she is the firm’s managing partner. She has experience in many different areas of law. In over fifteen years of practicing, she has represented both businesses and individuals in all levels from Magistrate Court to the West Virginia Supreme Court. In 2010, Tish had the honor of serving as President of the West Virginia State Bar. During her year of service, she visited every courthouse in the State of West Virginia to meet with lawyers in every county in order to improve the legal profession in our State. She gained great perspective on the diversity of the State and the needs of our legal system during these visits. Ultimately, she realized that hard work, leadership, and listening to people allows us to accomplish more for the court system in West Virginia. Tish has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations including the Marshall University Board of Governors, The Education Alliance Board and the Children’s Home Society Board. She believes that justice is best served when our justices rule based on the merits of the case, not the identity of the parties. To Tish, that means that the courts should not favor criminal defendants over law enforcement and the victims of crime. She believes that consumers and employees have the same rights under the law as corporations and employees. In addition, Tish believe that all persons who come before the Supreme Court have the right to have their cases heard by justices whose independence in a particular case cannot reasonably be questioned. While litigants now can seek to “recuse” or remove a justice whom they believe does not meet this basic test of fairness, the justice whose impartiality is challenged is the only person who makes the decision about whether he or she sits on a case. The current Supreme Court Rules do not provide any mechanism for a litigant to challenge the decision of a justice to stay on the case when his or her neutrality is challenged. In the 2008 A.T. Massey case, the United States Supreme Court found the failure of a justice to remove himself from that case rose to the level of a violation of the United States Constitution. In the wake of the Massey decision, states have begun to revamp their recusal rules. A number of these states, supported by scholars and the American Bar Association, are considering new rules that would permit recusal decisions to be reviewed by someone other than the justice whose impartiality has been questioned. Now that the West Virginia Court system has highlighted this problem to the nation, Tish strongly believes we should be at the forefront in the effort to reform our rules. You can find out more about Tish at www.chafin2012.com.
Robin Jean Davis
Party: Democratic NOT Participating in Public Funding
Justice Robin Davis was born and raised in Boone County, West Virginia, with strong West Virginia values instilled by her parents, a school teacher/administrator and a coal miner. Justice Davis graduated from Van High School and earned her bachelor’s degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College. She earned both her master’s and law degrees from West Virginia University. From 1982 to 1996, Justice Davis was a member of the six-person law firm Segal and Davis, L.C., with her husband, Scott Segal. She concentrated in the areas of employee benefits and domestic relations and in 1993 became the first lawyer in West Virginia inducted into the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In 1991 the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals appointed her to the West Virginia Board of Law Examiners, on which she served until her election to the Court in 1996. Initially elected to a four-year unexpired term, Justice Davis won election in November, 2000, to a full 12-year term. Justice Davis is the most senior member of the Court. She served as Chief Justice in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2010. Under her leadership as Chief Justice in 2010, the court approved Revised Rules of Appellate Procedure, which modernized and comprehensively changed the appellate process in West Virginia to provide a decision on the merits of each case presented to the Court. The Court also approved new Rules of Juvenile Procedure. Currently, Justice Davis is the Supreme Court’s designee to the Judiciary’s Initiative on Truancy. In her previous terms as Chief Justice, she initiated a number of programs which have proven essential to the Court’s work with children and families, including the expansion of parent education programs; the establishment of an on-line Child Abuse and Neglect database; and additions to legal rules governing child abuse and neglect proceedings. Justice Davis also provided leadership on the creation of the Rules on Mass Litigation; the creation of the West Virginia Trial Court Rules; and the video initial appearance pilot project. In 2007 Justice Davis led the West Virginia delegation to the National Judicial Leadership Summit in New York City and was responsible for the Court using a competitive national grant to initiate the West Virginia Domestic Violence Registry. She expanded the Supreme Court’s outreach efforts by conducting court proceedings in Wheeling and Charles Town. In 2000 Justice Davis received the Distinguished West Virginian Award, the Graduate of Distinction Award from the West Virginia Education Alliance in 2008, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Charleston in 2010. Justice Davis is the author of several West Virginia Law Review articles and co-authored the Litigation Handbook on West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure with former Justice Franklin Cleckley and Louis J. Palmer, Jr., as well as “Punitive Damages Law in West Virginia” and “Workers’ Compensation Litigation in West Virginia: Assessing the Impact of the Rule of Liberality and the Need for Fiscal Reform” with Mr. Palmer. Justice Davis and her husband have one son, Oliver Davis-Segal.

Allen Loughry
Party: Republican Participating in Public Funding
Allen Loughry, holds four separate law degrees including an S.J.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science), from The American University, Washington College of Law; an LL.M. (Master of Laws in Criminology and Criminal Justice) from the University of London; an LL.M. (Master of Laws in Law and Government) from The American University, Washington College of Law; and a JD from Capital University School of Law, in addition to studying law at the University of Oxford. Loughry also obtained a B.S. in Journalism degree from West Virginia University. Loughry has practiced law as a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the West Virginia Attorney General's Office and has argued more than twenty cases before the West Virginia Supreme Court as well as argued or filed legal pleadings in the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit, the United States District courts for the Southern and Northern Districts of West Virginia and Southern District of Florida, as well as various other legal forums. He also served as a Special Assistant to a United States Congressman and as a Direct Aide to a West Virginia Governor. He has worked for the Ohio Supreme Court; served as a personal assistant to a county prosecutor; was appointed as a special prosecuting attorney; wrote for two newspapers and the Associated Press; and assisted with or ran various political campaigns at the local, state, and national levels. Loughry currently practices law as a lawyer to the West Virginia Supreme Court. Loughry is the author of Don't Buy Another Vote, I Won’t Pay for a Landslide, a book that highlights our State’s history of political corruption and provides ideas to reform the State’s political system in positive ways. He also teaches political science at the University of Charleston. He is running in the 2012 election as a Republican candidate for the West Virginia Supreme Court. Loughry, a West Virginia native, was born in Elkins. He currently resides with his wife, Kelly, and their son, Justus, in Charleston. Loughry may be contacted at www.allenloughry.com and at his Facebook page "Allen Loughry for Supreme Court." Loughry is the only candidate from either political party who successfully quailed for funding under the pilot program for the 2012 Supreme Court of Appeals election. Loughry’s campaign collected 676 contributions from West Virginia registered voters from $1 to a maximum of $100. The contributions were collected from West Virginians in every congressional district. Loughry’s participation in the program stems from his belief that there is too much money pouring into judicial elections. Loughry believes that a Justice should follow the law as created by the West Virginia Legislature and as written in the U.S. and West Virginia Constitutions and treat every litigant with dignity and respect. Loughry does not believe that the Supreme Court should act as a super legislature and believes in the separation of the three branches of government.
John Yoder
Party: Republican NOT Participating in Public Funding
Judge John Yoder is currently a circuit judge in the 23rd Judicial Circuit, headquartered in Martinsburg. He has a very distinguished career, and is the only candidate with service as an elected official or presidential appointee in all three branches of government. Yoder is also the only candidate who has worked in the highest court in the land. After serving four years as a state circuit judge from 1976-1980, Judge Yoder was the only person selected in a national competition to serve at the United States Supreme Court as a Supreme Court Fellow in 1980. After his service as a Fellow, the Chief Justice of the United States hired him to work on his staff. President Reagan next appointed him to establish and run a new subdivision at the U.S. Department of Justice, and he received an outstanding performance rating for his role in successfully doing that. After that, he was elected as and served as a West Virginia State Senator for eight years prior to getting elected as a Circuit Judge for the 23rd Judicial Circuit in 2008. In addition to his judicial experience, Judge Yoder has more than twenty years of litigation experience in the private sector, including specializing in the practice of constitutional law. He has tried numerous jury trials and argued numerous appeals before appellate courts. Judge Yoder has been a voice for judicial reform and positive change in the judicial system. He strongly believes in the rule of law and in upholding the fairness and integrity of the judicial system. Judge Yoder holds a B.A. degree with majors in government and economics from Chapman University, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kansas School of Law, and an M.B.A. at the University of Chicago. He is also a graduate of several programs at the National Judicial College and the National College of Juvenile Justice. In 2010, Judge Yoder was the Republican Nominee for a 2 year unexpired term for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. In the general election, he almost beat a popular the incumbent, Justice Thomas McHugh, getting 49.2% of the vote. Judge Yoder expanded only approximately $6,000 in the race compared to nearly $300,000 expanded by his opponent. Justice McHugh is not running for re-election in 2012, so he will not be running against an incumbent this year as he was in 2010. You can find out more about Judge Yoder at: www.judgeyoder.com.