ASHLAND — Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick F. Fischer discussed his passion for state justices Tuesday at the Ashbrook Center Constitution Day Luncheon.
The lecture was part of a celebration with the Ashbrook Center of Constitution Day, recognizing the day the constitution was created.
Fischer’s 30-minute lecture, “Close Encounters of a Judicial Kind: The Sometimes Alien World of State Judges and State Constitutional Law,” included his journey to getting elected as well as the importance of state judges.
Fischer began his six-year term on the Supreme Court of Ohio on Jan. 1, 2017, following his election in November 2016. Previously, he was elected to serve as a judge on the Ohio First District Court of Appeals in 2010, and was re-elected in 2012.
Fischer’s legal career spans more than 30 years. After graduating from Harvard Law School and Harvard College, he began his legal career as a clerk for U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman.
In 1987, Fischer moved into private practice and quickly built a stellar reputation as a practicing attorney.
“I think you’d agree with me,” he told the audience of college, high school and elementary students, “every judge matters, but especially the state judges. They do 90 percent of the work in this country every day.”
Fischer said judges are responsible for deciding divorces, adoptions, and executions.
“Every one of the actions I just described is a judicial act,” he said. “Only judges get to do that. Not the president, not congress, not the general assembly.”
Fischer said he discovered his admiration for state justices in 2004 when he was given an election-law case involving the voting observers ahead of the John Kerry and George W. Bush election.
After losing the initial case, he said he was able to win the case at the district court level, allowing his clients, the voting observers, to go into any precinct in the state of Ohio.
“It was at that moment I was proud to be an American,” the Ohio Supreme Justice said. “And all of the departments of elected officials were important. I told my wife I knew in my gut I wanted to run for judge.”
