CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Tucker County native Allen H. Loughry II has been selected to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia for a four-year term, the first time a Chief Justice will serve four years in a row since 1888.
Since then, the Supreme Court has elected its Chief Justice to serve a one-year term, with a few of Justices serving two years in a row. On April 5, 2017, the Court voted to change its rules to provide for the Chief Justice to serve a four-year term and to allow the Chief Justice to be re-elected to subsequent four-year terms by a majority vote of the members of the Court.
This change in rules arose out of the Court’s belief that these constitutionally imposed duties, as well as the efficient and competent administration of West Virginia’s entire court system, are better achieved when the Chief Justice can serve for more than one year. Under the Constitution of West Virginia, significant duties are imposed upon the Supreme Court and, in particular, upon the Chief Justice, who constitutionally serves as “the administrative head of all the courts.”
Following the change in rules, the Court selected current Chief Justice Loughry to serve in that role for a full four-year term. Initially tapped to serve a one-year term as Chief Justice on January 1, 2017, Chief Justice Loughry became the youngest elected chief justice currently serving in the nation. Chief Justice Loughry was humbled when he was elected to the Court in 2012, and again when selected to serve as Chief Justice for a four-year term.
“I am deeply honored and humbled that my colleagues have placed their confidence and trust in me. I look forward to moving the court system forward in my role as Chief Justice for the next four years,” Chief Justice Loughry said.
A native of Parsons and a graduate of Tucker County High School, Chief Justice Loughry believes that his parents and small town upbringing have benefitted him throughout his professional career and will help him during his four-year term as Chief Justice.
Chief Justice Loughry, the first Justice from Tucker County, will continue to exercise a unique leadership role as the presiding officer and head of the state’s judicial branch of government. In addition to presiding over oral arguments and working with the Court’s Administrative Director on administrative matters that impact the judiciary state-wide, an important daily duty of the Chief Justice is to rule on motions to recuse judicial officers in lower courts and to assign replacement magistrates, family court judges, and circuit court judges when one of those judicial officers is unable to serve in a particular case due to a conflict of interest.
Chief Justice Loughry has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from West Virginia University. While at the University, he worked as a reporter for The Parsons Advocate and also wrote for the [Morgantown] Dominion Post and was a freelance writer for The Associated Press. Chief Justice Loughry also obtained four law degrees: an S.J.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science) from American University, Washington College of Law, where he had the distinction of being one of the first three people (and the only one from North America) to be admitted to the SJD program. Justice Loughry also has an LL.M. (Master of Laws in Criminology and Criminal Justice) from the University of London; an LL.M. (Master of Laws in Law and Government) from American University, Washington College of Law; and a JD (Juris Doctor) degree from Capital University School of Law, where he graduated with the honor of Order of the Curia.
On October 4, 2013, the American University, Washington College of Law awarded him its Distinguished Alumnus Award.
In 1999, Chief Justice Loughry completed the program of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law through the American University, Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, Institute of Human Rights. He also studied law in England at the University of Oxford and received the program’s top political science award.
In 1997, he completed a legal externship at the Ohio Supreme Court. He also served as a personal assistant to the Tucker County Prosecuting Attorney in 1988 and 1989. Justice Loughry served as a Special Assistant to former U.S. Rep. Harley O. Staggers, Jr., and as a Direct Aide to former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton.
Justice Loughry was a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office from 1997 to 2003. He served in both the Appellate and Administration Divisions and was appointed as a special prosecuting attorney on numerous occasions to handle criminal cases throughout West Virginia. In 2003 he began working as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, a job he held when he was elected to the Court.
In 2006, he published the book Don’t Buy Another Vote, I Won’t Pay for a Landslide, a non-partisan look at West Virginia’s history of political corruption.
