Melody Stewart
Melody Stewart (Democratic Party) was a judge of the Ohio Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2019. She left office on January 1, 2025.
Stewart (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for judge of the Ohio Supreme Court. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Stewart completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
To read more about judicial selection in Ohio, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[1] Stewart received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[2] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Melody Stewart earned a high school diploma from the Beaumont School, a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, a J.D. from the Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and a Ph.D. from the Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.[3] After working as an assistant law director, Stewart began a career in education. She lectured, taught, and worked as an assistant dean at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She later joined the faculty of this school and taught classes on ethics and professional responsibility, criminal law, criminal procedure, and legal research, writing and advocacy. Stewart also worked as the director of student services for the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and taught at the University of Toledo College of Law and Ursuline College.[3] Stewart was a judge on the Eighth District Court of Appeals in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, from 2007 to 2018. She was elected to the court on November 7, 2006, and was re-elected in 2010 and 2016.[3][4][5]
Stewart has been affiliated with the American Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, Ohio Women's Bar Association, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Norman S. Minor Bar Association, Ohio Judicial Conference, Ohio Court of Appeals Judges Association, Phi Alpha Delta, Mu Phi Epsilon, and the William K. Thomas Inn of Court.[5]
Elections
2024
See also: Ohio Supreme Court elections, 2024
General election
General election for Ohio Supreme Court
Incumbent Joseph Deters defeated incumbent Melody Stewart in the general election for Ohio Supreme Court on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Joseph Deters (R) | 55.1 | 2,997,144 | |
| Melody Stewart (D) | 44.9 | 2,443,066 | ||
| Total votes: 5,440,210 | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Ohio Supreme Court
Incumbent Melody Stewart advanced from the Democratic primary for Ohio Supreme Court on March 19, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Melody Stewart | 100.0 | 459,539 | |
| Total votes: 459,539 | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court
Incumbent Joseph Deters advanced from the Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court on March 19, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Joseph Deters | 100.0 | 835,968 | |
| Total votes: 835,968 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
To view Stewart's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Stewart in this election.
2018
General election
General election for Ohio Supreme Court
Melody Stewart defeated incumbent Mary DeGenaro in the general election for Ohio Supreme Court on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Melody Stewart (D) | 52.6 | 1,853,418 | |
| Mary DeGenaro (R) | 47.4 | 1,667,258 | ||
| Total votes: 3,520,676 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Ohio Supreme Court
Incumbent Mary DeGenaro and Melody Stewart advanced from the primary for Ohio Supreme Court on May 8, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Mary DeGenaro (R) | 53.8 | 581,244 | |
| ✔ | Melody Stewart (D) | 46.2 | 500,084 | |
| Total votes: 1,081,328 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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2016
- Main article: Ohio judicial elections, 2016
Stewart filed to run for re-election to the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals. No candidates filed to run against her.[6]
Election results
November 8 general election
| Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, Stewart's Seat, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Melody Stewart Incumbent (unopposed) |
100.00% | 292,020 | |
| Total Votes (100% reporting) | 292,020 | |||
| Source: Ohio Secretary of State Official Results | ||||
March 15 primary election
| Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, Judge Stewart's Seat Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Melody Stewart Incumbent (unopposed) |
100.00% | 116,630 | |
| Total Votes | 116,630 | |||
| Source: Ohio Secretary of State Official Results | ||||
2010
- See also: Ohio judicial elections, 2010
Stewart was re-elected to the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals after running unopposed.[7]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Melody Stewart completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Stewart's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I have a Bachelor of Music degree (with the name Melody, what else would I study in college?) and am a classically trained pianist. After finishing law school, I practiced law as a civil defense litigator then became a law school administrator and professor before being elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals in 2006. I also earned a social science Ph.D. I am the incumbent justice seeking for re-election to the Ohio Supreme Court. Prior to being elected to the Supreme Court in 2018, I served on the Court of Appeals for 12 years. This combined service makes me the most experienced appellate jurist on the Ohio Supreme Court in addition to being the most educated.
I am a good public servant who has worked hard to make our judicial system more efficient, more effective, and more accountable to the people it serves. In recognition of this work, I have been honored by many civic, legal, community, and professional organizations. When I ran for the Supreme Court in 2018, I was the highest rated candidate of all the candidates running that year. I have been endorsed by many civic, labor, educational, and public safety entities.- Ohio voters must stop the politicization of the judiciary. I was elected to the Supreme Court by over 1.8 million voters in contrast to my opponent who was appointed to another seat on the court by his friend the governor but who has decided to run against me for political reasons rather than run to keep the seat he was given. My opponent is the only member of the Ohio Supreme Court with zero prior judicial experience.
- Quality and Experience Matter! I am a jurist who has only run for judicial offices. My background experiences, education and training make me a quality public servant. In stark contrast, my opponent is a life long politician who has run for, and been elected to, multiple different offices but has never run for seat in the judiciary. This is because he lacks the background to be a quality candidate and is a viable judicial candidate now only because of the personal/political appointment and the fact that the Ohio general assembly changed the law a few years ago to have some judicial candidates run with party labels under their names. This was done to give my opponent and others in his party an advantage in judicial races.
- Don't be fooled by fearmongering and name calling. Require more from your candidates running for election or re-election to a public office. Do your own research and make your own inquires. judicialvotescount.org is a good nonpartisan, non endorsing resource to evaluate the credentials of all the candidates running for judicial seats throughout the state.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Melody
Stewart
Ohio
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Democrat as of 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Received donations from Democrat-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Stewart was a registered Democrat as of 2020. She donated $925 to Democratic candidates. She received $10,000 from the Ohio Democratic Party, $7,000 from the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, $7,000 from the Ohio Ed association, $5,000 from the Ohio Education Federation, and $5,000 the Ohio AFL-CIO throughout her campaign. She was endorsed by the Butler County Progressives, the Ohio Education Association, and the Ohio AFL-CIO. Ohio was a Republican trifecta when she was elected.
Noteworthy cases
Ohio Supreme Court limits Chevron deference (2023)
- See also: Chevron deference
The Ohio Supreme Court on December 29, 2022, ruled against applications of Chevron deference in the state. In TWISM Ents., L.L.C. v. State Bd. of Registration for Professional Engineers & Surveyors, the court found that state courts do not need to defer to state agency interpretations of the law—a deference doctrine known as Chevron deference at the federal level.[10]
Lower courts in TWISM deferred to the Ohio Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Surveyors’ interpretation of its engineering certification rules, which denied TWISM Enterprises’ application to provide professional engineering services because the company’s designated licensed engineer was an independent contractor rather than an employee. TWISM Enterprises appealed the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing that the agency’s interpretation of the governing statute was flawed because the law does not specify that the licensed engineer must be an employee of the business.[10]
Justice Pat DeWine (with Justices Sharon L. Kennedy, Pat Fischer, and Michael P. Donnelly concurring) disagreed with the agency’s interpretation of the statute and argued that the judicial branch has the authority to determine whether the statutory interpretations of state agencies are lawful. DeWine, writing for the court, argued “that it is the role of the judiciary, not administrative agencies, to make the ultimate determination about what the law means. Thus, the judicial branch is never required to defer to an agency's interpretation of the law.” DeWine added that “an agency interpretation is simply one consideration a court may sometimes take into account in rendering the court's own independent judgment as to what the law is.”[10]
Justices Maureen O’Connor, Melody Stewart, and Jennifer Brunner concurred in the judgment only.[10]
State supreme court judicial selection in Ohio
- See also: Judicial selection in Ohio
The seven justices of the Ohio Supreme Court are selected through partisan primaries and partisan general elections. Previously, these judges were selected through partisan primaries and nonpartisan general elections, known as the Michigan method.[11][12][13]
All judges serve six-year terms, after which they are required to run for re-election if they wish to remain on the court.[13]
Qualifications
To serve on the Ohio Supreme Court, a judge must:
- have at least six years in the practice of law;
- be licensed to practice law in the state for at least one year preceding appointment or commencement of the judge's term;
- a judge of a court of record in any jurisdiction in the U.S.; and
- be under the age of 70.[14]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court is chosen by voters at large, serving a full six-year term in that capacity.[13]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement. The appointee serves until the next general election taking place 40 or more days after the vacancy occurred. If re-elected, the judge serves the remainder of his or her predecessor's unexpired term.[13]
In 2007, Governor Ted Strickland (D) issued an executive order creating a judicial appointment recommendation panel to assist in making new appointments. The panel evaluates applicants and advises the governor, but the governor is not bound to the panel's recommendations.[13] A similar system was established in 1972 under Governor Jack Gilligan (D), but it was abolished by Governor James A. Rhodes (R) three years later.[15]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Ohio Eighth District Court of appeals, "Melody J. Stewart," archived September 11, 2015
- ↑ Ohio Secretary of State, "2006 Election Results," accessed May 2, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 11, 2024
- ↑ [Ohio Secretary of State candidate list, received by email]
- ↑ Ohio Secretary of State, "2010 Election Results," accessed May 2, 2015
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Supreme Court of Ohio, "TWISM Ents., L.L.C. v. State Bd. of Registration for Professional Engineers & Surveyors," December 29, 2022
- ↑ Ohio Secretary of State, “Ohio Candidate Requirement Guide,” accessed December 7, 2021
- ↑ Ohio General Assembly, “(Senate Bill Number 80),” accessed December 7, 2021
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Ohio," accessed September 1, 2021
- ↑ Ohio Laws & Administrative Rules, "Section 2503.01 | Composition of supreme court; qualifications for justices.," accessed April 12, 2023
- ↑ University of Cincinnati College of Law, "Judicial Selection in Ohio: History, Recent Developments, and an Analysis of Reform Proposals," September 2003
| ||||||||||
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Current judges | Jennifer L. Brunner, Pat DeWine, Joseph Deters, Pat Fischer, Dan Hawkins, Sharon L. Kennedy, Megan E. Shanahan | ||
| Former judges | Herbert R. Brown, James P. Celebrezze, Bob Cupp, Robert Cupp, Mary DeGenaro, Joseph Deters, Michael P. Donnelly, Andrew G. Douglas, Judith French, Sharon L. Kennedy, Judith Ann Lanzinger, Yvette McGee Brown, Thomas Moyer, Maureen O'Connor, Terrence O'Donnell, William O'Neill, Paul Pfeifer, Alice R. Resnick, Melody Stewart, Evelyn Stratton, Francis E. Sweeney, Sr., J. Craig Wright | ||
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State resources:
Courts in Ohio • Ohio judicial elections • Judicial selection in Ohio
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