Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr., who will be retiring at the end of the year, delivered his final State of the Judiciary address before the General Assembly’s Interim Joint Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Minton, who has served as Chief Justice the past 14 years, talked about some of the challenges and accomplishments since heading up the Judiciary, as well as the future of the state court system.
He told lawmakers the first challenge was the Great Recession, when deep state budget cuts left all three branches of government reeling, and by 2012 the Judicial Branch was forced to furlough employees.
“After several years of lean budgets, we had laid off 282 employees statewide, eliminated court programs and rimmed operating costs at all four levels of the court system.”
Minton said the experience gained during that period came in handy when the next big thing hit in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Gov. Beshear declared a state of emergency after Kentucky confirmed its first case of COVID-19. As society shut down, the courts were forced to immediately move from in-person to virtual operations, turning on a dime to reinvent our entire way of doing business.”
Minton said despite the disruption and restrictions on in-person appearances in courtrooms, he was proud that the courts never closed.
“Judges turned to Zoom, but the hard work and extreme patience of our judges, circuit court clerks, and courtroom personnel, enabled us to weather the storm.”
Some of the accomplishments Minton pointed out were going from paper to an electronic court system; pay equity for court employees, circuit court clerks, and judges, although the pay remains below the national average; juvenile justice reform and more transparency and accountability in the court system.
Issues he says the court system will have to deal with in the future include racial justice and equity, digital transformation of public services, behavioral health issues, remote working, and adapting to climate change that has led to more severe and more frequent natural disasters, such as the tornado outbreak and flooding experience in the Kentucky over the past year.
Minton summed up his remarks to lawmakers by stating, “I can say with great certainty that the state of the Judicial Branch is strong, and that nothing is more paramount than retaining its independence. The very health of our democracy depends on a system of three separate but equal branches of government.”
Tom Latek has been the Frankfort correspondent for Kentucky Today, the online news website of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, since 2016. Previously, he covered news for radio and television stations in Frankfort, Lexington, and Louisville.
