Virginia Linder

Virginia Lynn Linder (born April 20, 1953) is an American judge from Oregon who served as the 99th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from January 2007 until January 2016. She served on the Oregon Court of Appeals from 1997 until her election to the state's Supreme Court in the 2006, an electoral campaign in which she defeated former Labor Commissioner and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Roberts.

Early life Virginia Linder was born in Colorado, the daughter of two teachers, but grew up mostly in Carmichael, California. Linder earned her first degree in political science from Southern Oregon State College in Ashland, Oregon in 1975. clerking in the Appellate Division of the Attorney General's Office.

Judicial career In 1997, she was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor John Kitzhaber, and was re-elected in 1998 and 2004. Because no candidate won a majority of the votes, Linder and Roberts advanced to the November runoff. In that runoff, Linder defeated Roberts by 52% to 48%. Linder's campaign committee raised just over $350,000 for her campaign but was outspent by more than two-to-one by the Roberts committee, which raised over $710,000. Since 1998 she has been a professor at Willamette's law school. When in office, she served as one of eight openly LGBT supreme court justices in the United States, alongside fellow Oregonian Rives Kistler, Colorado Supreme Court justice Monica Marquez, Hawaii Supreme Court justice Sabrina McKenna, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice Barbara Lenk, Connecticut Supreme Court justice Andrew J. McDonald, Vermont Supreme Court justice Beth Robinson, and Washington Supreme Court justice Mary Yu. Her 2006 election campaign was supported by the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.