Janice M. Holder

Janice Marie Holder (born August 29, 1949) is an American judge who served as a circuit court judge for Tennessee's Division II Circuit Court in the 30th district, served as the third woman justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1996 until 2014, and was the first female Chief Justice of Tennessee on the Tennessee Supreme Court from 2008 until 2010.

Education Janice M. Holder grew up in Robinson Township outside of McDonald, PA. She attended McDonald Elementary. She walked to school every day. As a child, she played tennis, roller skated, played basketball, and played piano. She was an only child. Holder's mother, a singer, and father, a drummer, met in a big band. She played basketball in college. In 1968, Holder transferred to University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. She pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma, an international women's sorority in college. Holder began at Duquesne University School of Law in autumn of 1972. Over the summer at law school, Holder worked with a federal magistrate working on pro se petitions in an internship. In Tennessee, circuit courts are under general jurisdiction meaning they hear both civil and criminal cases as well as appeals. Circuit courts hear cases from the city, juvenile, municipal, and general sessions courts. While serving on the 30th Circuit Court as a judge, Judge Holder received several distinctions for her outstanding work. In 1990, she was selected for the Memphis Bar Association Sam A Mayr Award due to her advocacy and service to the legal profession and broader community. In 1992, Judge Holder received the Chancellor Charles A. Rond Award as an Outstanding Jurist on behalf of the Memphis Bar Association. On June 26, 2013 Holder announced that she would not seek retention in August 2014 and would retire when her term ended.

Tennessee Supreme Court In 1996, Janice M. Holder was appointed as a Justice by Governor Sundquist to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Holder was preceded by Justice Penny J. White. Penny J. White was removed from the bench in her retention election due to a conservative campaign against her.

In light of the capital punishment campaign against White, Republican Governor Don Sundquist publicly promised before the retention election that he would not appoint someone to the judiciary unless he was sure that the nominee supported the death penalty. Justice Holder is regarded as a judge with a slight conservative ideological leaning. As Chief Justice, Holder assigned opinions to the justices, led the administrative conferences, led the opinion conferences, and guided the justices in areas where the Court and other areas of government meet. Her legacy on the Tennessee Supreme Court, according to Justice Wade, will be remembered by her valiant promotion of women's rights, her leadership in the Access to Justice Initiative, and her servant leadership to all Tennesseans. Five of her more recent notable cases in which she authored the opinion include:

Jose Rodriguez a.k.a. Alex Lopez v. State of Tennessee, 437 S.W.3d 450 (Tenn. 2014)

In State v. Smith, the defendant was convicted on two counts of fabricating evidence and six counts of making a false report about the disappearance of his wife. The trial court imposed a one year sentence in county jail with six years of probation afterwards. The defendant motioned for a new trial, and the trial court affirmed convictions of false report but dismissed the fabricating evidence convictions. The state and defendant appealed. The Court of Criminal Appeals reinstated the defendant's fabricating evidence convictions, dismissed the false report convictions, and reaffirmed remaining convictions and sentences. The Supreme Court of Tennessee ruled that the two false report convictions should be dismissed due to insufficient evidence and that three of the false report convictions were multiplicities. The Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Criminal Appeals in every other aspect.

Justice Janice M. Holder also wrote the court opinion in State v. Freeland. The defendant was convicted on counts of first degree premeditated murder, first degree felony murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, and tampering with evidence. The trial court imposed a death sentence. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the lower court's conviction and sentence. In an appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals was affirmed in their judgement. But the Tennessee Supreme Court moved the case back to the trial court on behalf of an entry of corrected judgment in which the trial court merged the convictions for first degree murder into a singular conviction.

Hancock v. Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee was a federal bankruptcy court in which the Board of Professional Responsibility instituted a disciplinary action against an attorney who was denied in his application for bankruptcy. The attorney wrote an email to the judge who blocking the fee application demanding an apology. When the Board decided that the attorney violated several Rules of Professional Conduct, the attorney was suspended from practicing law for thirty days. The chancery court added violations for other misconduct, and the attorney appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the panel's conclusion in finding the attorney in violation of rules and that he was sanctionable for his conduct.

In Griffin v. Campbell, civil action was filed by the plaintiff in the general sessions court. This civil action claimed health care liability against the defendant. The trial court ruled favor of the defendant. The plaintiff filed a notice of appeal following the ruling, and appealed to the circuit court but was dismissed. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's judgement. The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the judgement of the Court of Appeals sending the case back to the trial court.

Personal life Janice M. Holder is active in her community contributing to various organizations to expand access to justice in Tennessee. She is a member of the Metal Museum Board of Trustees and the Board of Commissioners of Memphis Area Transit Authority. Therefore, women were tokens representing all women not necessarily a minority. In her class at Duquesne University college of law, there were only 13 women. Holder recalled in an article with the Memphis Downtowner that the first woman was already hired when she was job searching out of college, and that legal jobs were not willing to hire a second woman. Applying for clerkships, Holder knew only two of the eight that judges would hire women in Pittsburgh. Holder applied for a job with Chief Judge Herbert Sorg because she knew that he hired women, and her clerkship with Judge Sorg inspired her to become a judge. As a young woman lawyer in Memphis, Holder felt restricted from making appearances in general sessions court because she says people did not like being represented by a woman lawyer.