Jennifer B. Coffman (born January 8, 1948) is a former

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky (in case citations, E.D. Ky.) is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises approximately the Eastern half of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The United States Cour ...

and the

United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky The United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky (in case citations, W.D. Ky.) is the federal district court for the western part of the state of Kentucky. Appeals from the Western District of Kentucky are taken to the Unite ...

Education and career

Born in Union City,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, Coffman received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

in 1969, a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

from the same institution in 1971, and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

University of Kentucky College of Law The University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law, also known as UK Rosenberg College of Law, is the law school of the University of Kentucky located in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded initially from a law program at Transylvania Universit ...

in 1978. She was in private practice in Lexington,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

from 1977 to 1993, also teaching as an adjunct instructor at the University of Kentucky College of Law from 1979 to 1981.

Federal judicial service

On August 6, 1993, Coffman was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

to a joint appointment to both the

and the

, both seats having been vacated by

Eugene Edward Siler Jr. Eugene Edward Siler Jr. (born October 19, 1936) is a United States federal judge, Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States Distric ...

, who had been elevated to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of ...

on September 20, 1991. She was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on September 30, 1993, and received her commission on October 1, 1993. She served as the Chief Judge of the Eastern District from 2007 to 2012. She also served a seven-year term on the

United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants aga ...

starting in 2011 until she retired from all of her appointments, effective January 8, 2013. She was the first female judge appointed to the federal courts in Kentucky, and as of 2020 Coffman is the last judge appointed by a Democratic president to the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Response to Judge Philpot

In 2013, following the gay rights decisions in '' Hollingsworth v. Perry'' and ''

United States v. Windsor ''United States v. Windsor'', 570 U.S. 744 (2013), is a landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case concerning same-sex marriage. The Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal recognition o ...

'', Kentucky circuit court Judge

Tim Philpot Timothy Neil Philpot (Tim Philpot, born March 18, 1951) is an American lawyer, author and judge. He was elected to serve as a family court circuit judge in Fayette County, Kentucky in 2004, and again in 2006 and 2014, in the latter case with a te ...

wrote an opinion editorial titled "Rulings do not change Ky. law on gay marriage." Coffman wrote an opinion editorial in response, highly critical of Philpot's judgement in writing the piece and declaring that he had risked his judicial integrity and concluded that "Philpot might have foreclosed his ability to sit on any case involving gay marriage because his comments raise a question of bias on the topic of sexual orientation." Coffman also criticized Philpot for dismissing principles of judicial interpretation as "boring and technical", for gratuitously mentioning Walker's sexuality, and for ridiculing

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

with his observation that then-Chief Judge of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...

Vaughn Walker Vaughn Richard Walker (born 1944) is an American lawyer who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1989 to 2011. Walker presided over the original trial in '' Holl ...

's declaration that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional amounted to "one trial judge trump ngevery voter in California."

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coffman, Jennifer B. 1948 births Living people Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Kentucky alumni University of Kentucky College of Law alumni People from Union City, Tennessee Judges of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Women in Kentucky politics 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 20th-century American women lawyers 21st-century American women judges Kentucky lawyers

Education and career

Federal judicial service

Response to Judge Philpot

See also

Notes

References