By Sherry Larson
People’s Defender
They walked into a room filled with applause at the Democratic Headquarters in West Union. Three women are on the Ohio Justice Tour – Justice Jennifer Brunner, Judge Terri Jamison, and Judge Marilyn Zayas.
“Justice matters for everyone” is the statement on their campaign postcard. Brunner said, “By doing this Ohio Justice Tour, we are proving it.”
Justice Brunner is the 162nd Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. She is running to be Ohio’s 11th Chief Justice. She is a recipient of the 2008 John F. Kennedy Profile Courage Award for her service to Ohio as its first female Secretary of State. Brunner stated, “I want to be part of that first court that considers how we apply the constitutional formulas to any review of the maps.” She considers working with Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor a privilege and notes that O’Connor called her and encouraged her to run for Chief Justice.
Judge Jamison is running for the Ohio Supreme Court and started her career working for the Department of Welfare and then became a coal miner (one of the first women to work in the coal mines). She stated, “I’m a proud former United Mine Workers of America member.” Jamison later worked in the insurance industry, owning and operating her insurance company. She laughed and said that her midlife crisis was attending law school. After graduating from Capital University Law School, Jamison became a public defender in Franklin County and later owned a law firm. In 2012, she ran for the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas for the domestic relations and juvenile court. Jamison won that election and was reelected in 2018. She then ran for the 10th District Court of Appeals, where she sits now.
Judge Zayas is also running for the Ohio Supreme Court and serves on the 1st Appellate District in Hamilton County, Ohio. She was selected to sit on the Ohio Supreme Court on a case for a recused Justice. And has also sat on four other courts of appeal by special assignment of the Chief Justice. Like Jamison, the law was not Zayas’s first career, as she came to Ohio 34 years ago and was an IT manager for Proctor and Gamble. She stated, “I knew I was going to be in the legal field someday.” She shared an inspiring story about her mother’s challenging life and witnessing her struggles to get out of a troubled marriage. She told of the hardships they had to overcome and how she realized that courts have “very profound effects on people and families in our community.” Zayas stated, “As a judge, it’s my role, my responsibility, to ensure that anyone who comes to the court also gets a fair chance.”
Justice Brunner said, “We must have the courage when it is appropriate to fully occupy our lane and call out something that may be unconstitutional and stand our ground, whether it be popular or unpopular because we have to take the long view of what’s going to be good for the people.”