Cynthia D. Kinser

Cynthia D. Kinser
25th Chief Justice of Virginia
Incumbent
Assumed office February 1, 2011
Preceded by	Leroy R. Hassell, Sr.
Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia
Incumbent
Assumed office July 8, 1997
Appointed by	George F. Allen
Preceded by	Roscoe B. Stephenson, Jr.
Personal details
Born	Cynthia Dinah Fannon (1951-12-20) December 20, 1951 Pennington Gap, Virginia, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Henry Allen Kinser, Jr.
Alma mater	University of Tennessee University of Virginia

Cynthia Dinah Kinser (born December 20, 1951) is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia who was elected by the Virginia General Assembly to her first 12-year term in 1998 after being appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy in 1997. Justice Kinser was elected to a second 12-year term during the 2010 session of the General Assembly. Under current law, Justice Kinser will be required to retire or take senior status in January 2022, as this date coincides with the expiration of her current term, she will not be eligible for reappointment unless the current mandatory retirement age is increased or eliminated. Justice Kinser recently became Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court on February 1, 2011. She is the first woman to hold the office of Chief Justice on the Court.

Justice Kinser received her bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Tennessee in 1974, and her law degree from the University of Virginia in 1977. Prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court by then-Governor George Felix Allen, Kinser served, along with Allen, as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Glen M. Williams, Western District of Virginia from 1977 to 1978. Allen and Kinser had also been law school classmates. She then entered lawyer private practice from 1978 to 1979 and served as Commonwealth's Attorney for Lee County, Virginia from 1980 to 1984. She returned to private practice from 1984 to 1990. She served as a U.S. magistrate judge, Western District of Virginia from 1990 to 1997. She succeeded Justice Roscoe B. Stephenson, Jr..

At the ceremony announcing her appointment, Gov. Allen said of Justice Kinser, "She believes the purpose of judges is to interpret law, not to make it." Kinser, in her remarks, responded, "It is for the legislature to pass laws and, as a judge, it is not for me to agree or disagree but to apply the law to the facts of a case." Following news of her appointment, Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, a Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates, said that, though he was not familiar with Kinser's credentials. "Given the source, I would assume that she's no screaming liberal, and that she reflects Governor Allen's point of view."

According to news reports at the time of her appointment, Kinser's motto is "To make the best better" from 4-H, the youth agricultural organization in which she was active.