Maynard
Walker
CHARLESTON -- The West Virginia Citizens Defense League Political Action Committee (WVCDL-PAC) has endorsed Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard and Beth Walker for election as justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals.
WVCDL-PAC is the political action committee of the West Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (WVCDL). WVCDL is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, all-volunteer, grassroots organization of concerned West Virginians who support an individual's right to keep and bear arms for defense of self, family, home and state, and for lawful hunting and recreational use.
In its selection process, WVCDL-PAC invited all candidates for the Supreme Court to respond to an open-ended questionnaire consisting of questions about each candidate's background, general judicial philosophy, and public statements or writings on firearm and self-defense issues. Maynard, Walker and Menis Ketchum returned responses to this questionnaire.
"Chief Justice Maynard has provided a lifetime of exemplary public service to the people of West Virginia," WVCDL-PAC Chairman Jim Mullins said. "As a justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Maynard has been a strong defender of an individual's right to keep and bear arms and of a crime victim's right to self-defense."
During its deliberations, WVCDL-PAC took particular note of Maynard's dissents in State ex rel. West Virginia Div. of Nat. Resources v. Cline, 200 W.Va. 101, 488 S.E.2d 376 (1997) (Maynard, J., dissenting) and State v. Jason H., 215 W.Va. 439, 599 S.E.2d 862 (2004) (Davis and Maynard, JJ., dissenting).
After WVCDL-PAC endorsed Beth Walker, Mullins said, "Beth Walker will be an outstanding addition to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. She will be a fair and impartial justice who will not legislate from the bench. Her academic background and judicial philosophy uniquely qualify her for the trust and support of West Virginia gun owners."
Walker is a summa cum laude graduate of Hillsdale College and earned her law degree from The Ohio State University College of Law.
In her statement of judicial philosophy, Walker noted, "Justices must be committed to restraint and not imposing their personal views on the law by way of judicial activism. Judges should be people who are humbled by their role in our system, not emboldened by it."