43
Top court justice makes homecoming trip to Valley
YOUNGSTOWN
For Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith L. French, her trip to the Mahoning Valley was a homecoming and an opportunity to help young people understand, and take an interest in, the legal system.
Justice French, who grew up in Sebring, helped Lords-town students in grades five through 12 on Friday morning to celebrate Constitution Day.
She then served on a three-judge panel at noon to evaluate moot court arguments presented by Youngstown State University students in a hypothetical case concerning a voter identification law.
“It’s always nice to be back on campus,” said Justice French, who has previously judged the YSU competition, as she arrived for the university moot court team’s public practice session.
“It’s just a great experience to see what the undergraduates are doing. They always have a really relevant problem to talk about” in moot court, she said.
Justice French also said she would be visiting her parents in Sebring and seeing her 2-month-old niece there for the first time.
“I’ve learned a lot about constitutional law. I’ve learned to speak eloquently on issues like the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment,” said Greta Frost of North Jackson, a pre-law senior majoring in political science and economics, before presenting her arguments.
“I’ve also really come out of my shell because I have to speak in front of people who really know what they’re talking about,” she said of the value of being a moot court team member.
The moot court arguments were presented in an appeals court setting in YSU’s board of trustees meeting room, with 20 minutes of arguments allotted for students on each side, followed by a critique of their arguments by members of the three-judge panel.
Besides Justice French, who presided, the panel consisted of Judge Gene Donofrio and staff Atty. Ron Slipski, both of the 7th District Court of Appeals.
YSU’s moot court team is 11th ranked in the nation, said Paul A. Sracic, professor and chairman of politics and international relations at YSU and director of the Rigelhaupt Pre-Law Center.
Having been appointed to the state’s top court by Gov. John Kasich, effective Jan. 1, 2013, Justice French, who lives in Grandview Heights, won an election to retain her seat the following year.
She was previously deputy director of legal affairs for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, assistant attorney general and chief counsel in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, chief legal counsel to Gov. Bob Taft and, for eight years, a 10th District Court of Appeals judge.
A 1980 Sebring McKinley High School graduate, she received her bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees from Ohio State University.