James B. Stephenson

James Bennett Stephenson (January 26, 1916 – June 21, 2005) was a justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court from 1976 to 1988.

Biography Early life, education, and military service Stephenson was born January 26, 1916, in Greenup County, Kentucky, to judge and Democratic state senator E. D. Stephenson and Emabel Bennett Stephenson. His grandfather Joseph B. Bennett had been a Republican congressman and his great-grandfather B. F. Bennett was a delegate at the 1890 Kentucky constitutional convention. and practiced law in Pike County, Kentucky. Stephenson served during World War II as a captain in the United States Army Air Corps also serving as a court martial trial judge and intelligence officer. The Republicans then decided to nominate Burke as their candidate, but Stephenson successfully challenged the legality of this move in the circuit and appellate courts, and remained the only candidate for the seat.

Stephenson stood for a seat on the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1972 as a Democratic candidate. He ran against Republican Don A. Ward a circuit judge from Perry County, Kentucky.

He was elevated from the court of appeals to the newly established Kentucky Supreme Court on New Year's Day 1976, and then served until 1988. He had outlived his wife Betty Campbell Paddison Stephenson who had died in 1997, together they had two daughters.