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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
| Back to e-WV
The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth “Beth” D. Walker born March 24, 1965, in Oak Park, Illinois, was raised in Huron, Ohio. In 1987, she graduated summa cum laude from Hillsdale College in Michigan. After earning her law degree from Ohio State University in 1990, she moved to West Virginia and joined the law firm of Bowles Rice in Charleston. In 22 years at the firm, she concentrated on labor and employment law and mediation.
After moving to Morgantown in 2011, Walker became Associate General Counsel for West Virginia University Medicine, advising the university’s hospitals regarding labor and employment matters from 2012 until resigning in 2016.
In 2008, with two vacancies on the Supreme Court of Appeals, Walker ran as a Republican, losing in the general election by less than 7,000 votes. After legislation changed the election of Supreme Court justices from a partisan to nonpartisan basis, the first nonpartisan election was held in May 2016. Beth Walker defeated Justice Brent Benjamin, former Justice Darrell McGraw and other candidates. With her election, women held a majority of seats on the Supreme Court for the first time in the state’s history.
In August 2018, following controversy involving the lavish remodeling and redecorating of court facilities and the federal investigations of justices Allen Loughry and Menis Ketchum, the House of Delegates voted to approve 11 articles of impeachment against Walker and the other justices. On October 2, the Senate voted to censure Walker, keeping her in office.
A lifelong Girl Scout, Justice Walker is former chairwoman and current member of the board of directors of Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council. She is married to Mike Walker and stepmother to Jennifer. They live in Morgantown.