Terence Curtis Kern (born September 25, 1944)
[ is a ]senior
Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to:
* Senior (name), a surname ...
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 Northern District of Oklahoma.
Education and career
Kern was born in Clinton, Oklahoma. He received a Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
degree from Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...
in 1966, 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 Oklahoma College of Law
The University of Oklahoma College of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Oklahoma. It is located on the University's campus in Norman, Oklahoma.
The College of Law was founded in 1909 by a resolution of the OU Boar ...
in 1969, and a Master of Laws
A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...
in Judicial Process from the University of Virginia School of Law
The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law or UVA Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as part of his "academical v ...
in 2004.
While at Oklahoma State University, he was in the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (AROTC) is the United States Army component of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. It is the largest Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program which is a group of college and university-based offic ...
from 1962 to 1964.United States Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a Military reserve force, reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed F ...
from March 1970 to August 1975, achieving the rank of specialist 4.[
He was a general attorney of the ]Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...
, Division of Compliance, Bureau of Deceptive Practices from 1969 to 1970. He was in private practice in Ardmore, Oklahoma
Ardmore is the county seat of Carter County, Oklahoma, United States. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,283, with an estimated population of 24,698 in 2019. The Ardmore micropolitan statistical area had an estimated ...
from 1970 to 1994.
Federal judicial service
On March 9, 1994, Kern 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 new seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma created by 104 Stat. 5089. He 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 June 8, 1994, and received his commission on June 9, 1994. He served as chief judge from 1996 to 2003. He assumed senior status
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...
on January 4, 2010.
Notable case
On January 14, 2014, Kern held that the Oklahoma Constitution's definition of marriage as limited to "the union of one man and one woman" violates the Equal Protection Clause
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...
of the Fourteenth Amendment. The suit, ''Bishop v. Oklahoma
Same-sex marriage in Oklahoma has been legal since October 6, 2014, following the resolution of a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. On that day, following the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Supreme Court's refusa ...
'', had been filed by two lesbian couples against the Tulsa County Clerk and others. The ruling has been stayed pending appeal. The amendment banning same-sex marriage was passed by the voters in 2004, and its legislative history was cited in the ruling.
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kern, Terence C.
1944 births
Living people
20th-century American judges
21st-century American judges
Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma
Military personnel from Oklahoma
Oklahoma National Guard personnel
Oklahoma State University alumni
People from Clinton, Oklahoma
United States Army reservists
United States Army soldiers
United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton
University of Oklahoma College of Law alumni