RICHMOND, Va – Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will appoint Chesapeake Circuit Court Judge S. Bernard Goodwyn to fill a Virginia Supreme Court vacancy Wednesday, according to legislative sources.
Goodwyn will be introduced at a Capitol Square news conference as the successor for Elizabeth B. Lacy, the first woman on the Virginia Supreme Court. Lacy, the court's longest-serving member, retired from active service in August.
Kaine selected Goodwyn from a list of nine jurists that a Virginia State Bar Association panel rated as highly qualified for the high court vacancy, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of confidentiality because the governor had not yet made his selection public.
Goodwyn in 1997 was appointed as the first black judge to what had been an all-white, all-male bench in Chesapeake. Before that, he served as a Chesapeake General District Court for two years.
Earlier, Goodwyn had been a law school instructor at the University of Virginia Law School.
A telephone message left for Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner was not immediately returned Tuesday night.
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