Catherine Kimball
From Judgepedia
Catherine D. "Kitty" Kimball is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana. She has served in this capacity since 1992. In 2008, she is being challenged for her 5th District seat on the court by Jefferson Hughes.
Louisiana is one of eight states that elects its supreme court justices in partisan elections. Kimball is a Democrat, and her opponent, Hughes, is a Republican.
Personal background
Catherine D "Kitty" Kimball was born in Alexandria, Louisiana on February 7, 1945. She is the daughter of the late William H. Dick and the late Jane C. Kelley Dick.[1] Justice Kimball graduated from Bolton High School in Alexandria in 1963.
She is married to Clyde W. Kimball, former Louisiana State Representative and former Deputy Secretary for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Justice Kimball and her husband have three children, and four grandsons and two granddaughters. The Kimballs reside in Ventress, Louisiana.
Legal background
Justice Kimball received her JD from Louisiana State University in 1970. Her work experience has included: Law Clerk, United States District Court, Western District of Louisiana, 1970; Special Counsel, Louisiana Attorney General's Office, 1971-73; General Counsel, Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Criminal Justice, 1973-81.
She opened her own private law practice from 1975-1982. During this time (1978-82), she was Assistant District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District. In December of 1982, she was elected District Judge, Division A, for the 18th Judicial District, and served in that capacity until being elected as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana in November of 1992. She was re- elected in 1998 without opposition.
Associations, Judicial Responsibilities, and Awards
Her current professional responsibilities and associations include: Member of the Louisiana State Bar Association; Member, American Judicature Society; Member, State-Federal Judicial Council; Member, Wex Malone American Inn of Court; Member, COSCA/NACM National Association for Court Management, Chair, Louisiana Supreme Court Case Management Information System Task Force; Chair, Louisiana Supreme Court Technology Committee; Chair of the Court Committee, Southeast Louisiana Criminal Justice Recovery Task Force, Chair, Judicial Budgetary Control Board; Board Member, Juvenile Justice Reform Act Implementation Commission. She has also been inducted into the Louisiana Justice Hall of Fame, the Louisiana State University Law School Hall of Fame; The Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum Foundation’s Louisiana Justice Hall of Fame; and is an Honorary Member of the Louisiana Chapter of Order of the Coif. She was selected as Outstanding Alumni of the LSU Law Center in 1999. She was named the 2006 Distinguished Jurist Award by the Louisiana Bar Foundation and recently honored by Crimestoppers with the Crimestoppers Criminal Justice and Community Service Award and named as one of the 2007 Top 100 in Baton Rouge by the Baton Rouge Business Report. She is also a member of the Louisiana Law Enforcement Commission, Data Base Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice National Integration Resource Center Task Force, Chair of the Integrated Criminal Justice Information System Policy Board, the Justice Funding Commission, the LSU Law Center National Alumni Board and a member of Leadership La.99.
She has previously served as Member, Paul M. Hebert Law Center Search Committee for a New Chancellor; Past President, Louisiana Legislative Wives Auxiliary; First Vice-President and Member, Executive Committee of the Louisiana District Judges Association; President; Member, Louisiana State University Law Alumni Association; Member, Louisiana Coordinating Council on Domestic Violence, Member, Louisiana Juvenile Judges Association; Member, National Conference of State Trial Judges; Member, 18th Judicial District Bar Association; Member, American Trial Lawyers Association; Chief Judge, 18th Judicial District Court; Member, The Governor's Commission on Child Support; Member, Economic Justice for All Task Force; Member, The Committee to Evaluate New Judgeships; Member, The Orleans Criminal and Civil Court Committee; Chair, Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee; Chair, Complex Litigation Committee; Honorary Committee Member, Heart of Spain; Member, Louisiana Data Base Commission; Member, The Supreme Court Committee on the Judicial Electoral Process; Member, The Louisiana Task Force on Women in the Courts; Member, The Governor's Commission on Child Support; Member, Automated Fingerprint Identification Selection Committee; Member, American Judicature Society. She received the Outstanding Judicial Award from Victims & Citizens Against Crime, Inc. and was selected in 1992 and again in 1997 and 1999 as a nominee for the YWCA Women of Achievement Award and was honored as one of the Top 25 Women of Achievement by the Baton Rouge Business Report in 1997. She received the 2002 Louisiana CASA Association President’s Award and in 2003 received an Ambassador for Children Award from the Louisiana CASA Association.
Legislative Ties
She is married to Clyde W. Kimball, former Louisiana State Representative and former Deputy Secretary for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Pro Bono Activities
Founder of the Sunshine Foundation, which distributes free books annually to Louisiana’s pre-schoolers.[1]
Political Affiliation and Campaign Contributions
In the 1992 election, Kimball raised $463,976. The top sector contributor was Lawyers and Lobbyist, and the group as a whole gave $309,516 (66.71%). The second largest giving group, of Finance, Real Estate, and Insurance, contributed $12,965 (2.79%).[1]
For information on Justice Kimball's 2008 financial records, filed with the Louisiana Board of Ethics, see here.
In the News: Articles
Supreme Court chief pans study of justices' donors
The Louisiana Supreme Court's chief justice lashed out Thursday at two professors who wrote a study that claims the court has been influenced by campaign donors, calling their article a "baseless and unsupported" attack. In a statement posted on the court's Web site, Chief Justice Pascal Calogero Jr. said the newly published Tulane Law Review article relied on flawed data and methodology in concluding that some justices have been "wittingly or unwittingly" influenced by donations from lawyers who appear before them.
The study indicates "with a high degree of statistical probability" that the voting of three of the court's seven justices — Calogero, Catherine Kimball and John Weimer — "bears a strong correlation to the campaign contributions they have received."[1]
Louisiana's Redistricting News
Louisiana has seven high court districts, the same number as congressional, so the ideal district size is the same, 638,425. However, the court districts can have a 5 percent deviation either way, unlike the congressional ones. The most over-populated district is 5 in central Louisiana, served by Justice Kitty Kimball of New Roads. It is 57,023 over the ideal size.[1]
On Judges' Impartiality
The United States Chamber of Commerce ranks Louisiana's judicial system 48th overall and 49th on judges' impartiality.[1]
Campaign donors sway high court votes, study says (January 31, 2008)
The Louisiana Supreme Court should change its rules to require justices to recuse themselves from deciding cases that involve litigants or lawyers who have given them campaign contributions, a Tulane Law School professor has concluded after he and another scholar studied voting patterns on the state's high court over 14 years.[1]
The report, "The Louisiana Supreme Court in Question: An Empirical and Statistical study of the Effects of Campaign Money on Judicial Function," was conducted by Tulane comparative law professor Vernon Palmer and Loyola assistant professor of economics John Levendis. "What we show in this study is there is an unusually high correlation between campaign contributions and decisions in favor of contributors, with very little possibility of being in error because it's done statistically," Palmer said. The study concluded that statistically speaking, campaign donors have a favored status among litigants appearing before the court, a sign it says indicates that campaign cash may have eroded the qualities most needed in such a court: independence, impartiality, and adherence to the rule of law.
When it came to cases in which both sides made campaign donations to the same justice but one side gave more money, the study found that Associate Justice John Weimer and Associate Justice Kimball usually voted for the side that gave the most. When a defendant was the bigger donor, the analysis showed, Kimball ruled for the defendant's position 61 percent of the time, and Weimer, 75 percent of the time. If the plaintiff's side gave larger amounts, Kimball voted for the plaintiff 67 percent of the time, and Weimer, 90 percent of the time, the study said.
Larger contributions had larger effects, the study found. Justice Catherine D. Kimball was 30 percent more likely to vote for a defendant with each additional $1,000 donation.[1]
"The marked statistical shift favoring the (largest) contributor irrespective of being plaintiff or defendant strongly indicates that it is the donation, not the underlying philosophical orientation, that accounts for the voting outcome," the report said. Weimer and Kimball display no such patterns in voting on cases that didn't involve any of their campaign donors.
Supreme Court: 'Let us govern ourselves' (February 11, 2008)
Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice Kitty Kimball, speaking publicly for the first time on Governor Bobby Jindal's ethics proposal, asked lawmakers today not to mandate that judges join other elected officials in disclosing their personal financial interests. Instead, Kimball said, the Legislature should ask the Supreme Court, which regulates judges around the state, to adopt rules similar to whatever legislators decide to impose on themselves. "We're not here to oppose the concept of disclosure," Kimball told the House and Governmental Affairs Committee. "We do have concerns about the methods used to obtain that information. ... We would rather have the opportunity to govern ourselves." [1]
State high court adopts ethics rules for judges (March 27, 2008)
Prompted by the recent passage of Governor Jindal's ethics initiatives, the Louisiana Supreme Court on Wednesday adopted a financial disclosure provision for state judges and justices of the peace and their spouses similar to the laws approved for legislators and other public officials. Jindal launched his ethics law overhaul in a special session in February, but he left judges out of the new disclosure requirements and gift restrictions after the Supreme Court pledged to adopt a similar set of standards. If the judges had not taken up the initiative, lawmakers were prepared to pass restrictions on judges during the legislative session that is scheduled to begin Monday.
The court's new provisions, which will take effect Jan. 1, were signed by Chief Justice Pascal Calogero, who was not available for comment Wednesday. A statement from the court released late Wednesday said the disclosure provisions are "consistent with and comparable to those provisions adopted by the state Legislature earlier this year for legislators and other public officials." The gifts provisions incorporate portions of Louisiana law that apply to other public officials and the American Bar Association's Model Code of Judicial Conduct, the release said.
According to the new court rules, judges will file reports annually revealing sources of income and other personal financial information. The first reports will be filed May 15, 2009, for income in the 2008 calendar year, the same deadline and time frame as in Jindal's new law. Justices of the peace will have a different set of requirements and will begin reporting annually May 15, 2010.
On Hurricane Damages (February 26, 2008)
A couple who lost their home to Hurricane Rita went to the Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday with their contention that state law requires an insurance company to pay the full cost of their loss even though flood water — not covered in their policy — did much of the damage. It was one of two insurance cases before the court Tuesday stemming from hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the 2005 storms that devastated much of Louisiana's coast. Both cases have major implications for the state's insurance market and for many victims of the storms.[1]
Citizens and other insurers say their policies cover damage from wind but not rising water, including wind-driven storm surge, and deny that the law obligates them to pay for flood damage. "We do not cover flood under any set of factual circumstances," Theodore "Trey" Haik III said told the court. Haik said the federal appeals court and several federal judges already have rejected similar arguments about the implications of the Valued Policy Law. However, one of the high court judges hearing the case Tuesday indicated she would not be bound by the federal court cases.
"I'm not really interested in what the federal courts have to say about this, frankly," said Justice Catherine Kimball.
On the Issues
On Discrimination and Equal Protection
2007
- Justice Kimball concurred in the majority opinion of the Court, which concluded that a mother who exposed her children to her lesbian relationship was not entitled to keep custody of those children.
- Justice Kimball concurred in the majority opinion of the Court, which concluded a white district attorney should have recused himself from the prosecution of "The Jana 6," six African-American highschool students who attacked a white student, because his past behavior indicated a bias towards vigorous prosecution of blacks, and insufficient prosecution of whites.
- Justice Kimball concurred in the dissenting opinion of Justice Jeannette Theriot Knoll. In doing so, he dissented from the majority opinion, written by Justice Bernette J. Johnson, which found that a prosecutor consciously and impermissibly took race into account where he, in a death penalty case with a black defendant who was convicted of first degree murder, failed to select a black juror who had filed a discrimination lawsuit against the state for "institutional discrimination."
On Government Accountability
2007
- Justice Johnson dissented from the majority opinion of Justice John L. Weimer, which imposed a 30 day suspension on Justice of the Peace Myrty Alfonso for her extreme abuse of power in having a neighbor against whom she harbored ill-will arrested and incarcerated for a night without probable cause.
On Personal Responsibility
2006
- Justice Kimball concurred in majority opinion of Justice Jeffrey P. Victory, which held, over the dissent of Justices Chet D. Traylor and Jeannette Theriot Knoll, that the State of Louisiana Department of Social Services was required to "make reasonable efforts to assist [a] parent in finding suitable housing before it may seek to terminate parental rights."
On Taxes
2006
- Justice Kimball concurred in the majority opinion of Justice Bernette J. Johnson, which held that a Government Agency Order requiring cell phone providers to pay into a fund for setting up rural phone service was a permissible "fee" rather than an unconstitutionally impermissible "tax," even though the eventual effect of these fees would be to pass on the costs to cell phone users rather than the general public.
On Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
2006
- Justice Kimball wrote the majority opinion for the Court, which, over the strong dissenting opinion of Justice Chet D. Traylor, held that a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan (1) did not constitute a gratuitous handout, loan, or donation of public funds to a private entity where it used public funds to construct a retail development and accompanying infrastructure for Cabela's Retail Center; (2) could be funded through the issuance of municipal bonds pursuant to Louisiana's TIF statute; and (3) did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution where it handed out public funds to Cabela's, a private retailer, but not to already-existing, smaller local retailers.
- Justice Kimball concurred in the majority opinion, written by Justice Jeannette Theriot Knoll, which held that (1) the government did not violate the due process rights, under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, of local citizens by notifying them of a $50 million Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan for Bass Pro Shops only by mail, rather than by personal service, even though they were, as a group, easily identifiable; and (2)
On Term Limits
2007
- The majority opinion of Justice Catherine D. Kimball, which, over the dissent of Bernette J. Johnson held that, under Louisiana's Term Limits law, Article 3, Section 4(E) of the Louisiana Constitution, Democrat state senator Cleo Fields was precluded from running for re-election where he had been elected to finish the term of a resigned predecessor in office, and then elected to two subsequent terms, since he had served long enough to constitute the maximum "two and one-half terms," under Louisiana's term limits laws. In reaching this conclusion, the court explicitly refused to apply a statute, passed by the legislature, intended to circumvent Article 3, Section 4(E) of the Louisiana Constitution and keep Mr. Fields in office.
On Tort Reform
2007
- Over the strong dissenting opinion of Justice Jeannette Theriot Knoll, the majority opinion, written by Justice Pascal Calogero, in which Justice Kimball concurred, held (1) that limitations on the legal liability of Lousiana healthcare providers, as set forth in the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act could be circumvented by an ordinary negligence cause of action; and (2) that such a cause of action was permissible where a New Orleans hospital lost power during Hurricane Katrina, resulting in the death of a patient on life support.
See Also
External Links
- Louisiana Supreme Court Biography
- Baton Rouge Bar Association Supreme Court judicial forum.
- Kimball's campaign website
