CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Former Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis is assured of her retirement benefits, according to a filing with the Secretary of State’s office.
The filing makes reference to an order by Gov. Jim Justice, assuring that Davis is eligible to claim credit for her years of service as a justice. Her benefits have accrued under the West Virginia Judges’ Retirement System.
Brian Abraham, senior counsel for the Justice administration, said the proclamation represents a matter-of-fact assessment of Davis’s length of service and qualifications for retirement, rather than any judgment of the impeachment situation.
“It’s just a ministerial function and she had met the qualifications for retirement as far as time,” Abraham said in a telephone interview.
“There’s nothing in that that allows the governor to withhold. There wasn’t anything that would have been a prohibiting factor. The Supreme Court has told us she meets the requirements.”
Davis spent more than two decades on the court before announcing her retirement last Tuesday.
Her announcement came a day after the House of Delegates voted to impeach all of the remaining members of the Supreme Court.
Davis, in her Tuesday announcement, said her retirement was effective the prior day.
“What we are witnessing is a disaster for the rule of law, the foundation of our state, and indeed, our very society,” Davis stated.
“For when a legislative body attempts to dismantle a separate branch of government, the immediate effects, as well as the precedent it sets for the future, can only be termed disastrous.”
The state Senate meets today to establish the rules for the impeachment trials of the remaining justices, Chief Justice Margaret Workman, Justice Beth Walker and the suspended Allen Loughry, who faces two dozen federal charges.
The justices were accused of crossing the line on a variety of items, including failure to hold each other accountable, signing off on skirting the law on payment of senior status judges and spending lavishly on office renovations.
In the adopted articles now going to trial in the state Senate, seven name suspended Justice Loughry, four were against Justice Davis, three for Workman and one for Walker.
Davis’s retirement letter to Governor Justice, dated the same day as the impeachment proceedings, was succinct: “Effective today, August 13, 2018, I hereby retire as a Justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.”
Davis’s statement during her retirement announcement blasted the impeachment process and the Republican majority in the Legislature.
“Most majority members of the judiciary committee have skipped from one subject to another, irrationally, and without due process of law,” Davis stated. “The majority party has established a preconception which they bring forth, without regard to the evidence, or the process by which that evidence should be considered.
“The majority members have ignored the will of the people who elected the justices of this court. They have erased the lines of separation between the branches of government. In fact, the majority party in the legislature is positioning to impose their own party preferences. The will of the people is being DENIED!”
Davis was elected to the court in a partisan election in 1996 to fill an unexpired term vacated by Justice Franklin Cleckley. She was re-elected in 2000.
Her current term was to expire in 2024. Davis served as chief justice of the court in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2014.
Davis is a Boone County native and is married to Charleston trial lawyer Scott Segal.