Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart speaks to Shelby Democrats
SHELBY ― Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart was the keynote speaker Saturday at the Shelby Area Democratic Club’s annual Truman-Kennedy Breakfast. Her election in 2018 made her the first Black woman to be elected to the Ohio Supreme Court in its more than 220-year history. She is running for re-election this coming fall.
Stewart was raised by a single mom in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland and remembers the riots in the 1960s when she was a young girl. Though her mother only had an eighth-grade education in a segregated one-room schoolhouse, she was never able to beat her mother in Scrabble until college, where she majored in music. Her mother instilled in her a love for classical music, and she began learning piano at age 5.
Stewart also was an appellate court judge for the Ohio 8th District for 12 years. She said it is that judicial experience that sets her apart from her opponent, who had no judicial experience before being appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2023.
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She lamented the fact that the Ohio Legislature passed legislation in 2021 that required judges running for seats at the appellate and Supreme Court levels have their party designation next to their names.
“Politics has no place in the judiciary. There are excellent judges from both parties," Stewart said.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Justice speaks to Shelby Democrats
