Citizens must pursue justice fervently, new appeals judge says at swearing-in

YOUNGSTOWN

The judicial and law-enforcement communities and all citizens have a responsibility to vigorously defend justice, Judge Carol Ann Robb said after she was sworn in as a new 7th District Court of Appeals judge.

Before a standing-room-only crowd that filled the courtroom and the atrium outside it, Judge Robb was sworn in Wednesday at the appeals court’s downtown Youngstown headquarters by Justice Sharon L. Kennedy of the Ohio Supreme Court.

Judge Robb’s six-year term on the four-judge court begins Feb. 9.

“Justice is the cornerstone of our nation. It is the principle which preserves our personal freedoms and protects our individual liberties,” Judge Robb told the audience of judges, lawyers, county officials and the general public.

The pursuit of justice requires scholarship, diligence and personal integrity, she said.

She added, however, the responsibility to pursue justice isn’t limited to judges and law-enforcement officials.

“Each person is called to the pursuit of justice — justice in your own lives, justice in your own families, justice in your own communities,” Judge Robb said. “It must be pursued fervently if the values of our nation are to survive.

“When you witness injustice, speak out, even when it may not be popular or politically correct to do so. When you witness justice, speak out. Encourage just acts so that individual freedoms and liberties prevail,” she said.

Judge Robb, a Republican, defeated Atty. Anthony Donofrio, a Democrat, on Nov. 4. She replaces the retiring Judge Joseph J. Vukovich, who did not seek a fourth term on the appeals bench.

“It gives me such great pleasure to know, as I leave — I have two more days — to know that I’m being replaced by a person of such high caliber and a wonderful personality,” Judge Vukovich said.

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