Judith Ann Lanzinger

Judith Lanzinger (born April 2, 1946 in Toledo, Ohio) is an American jurist. She retired as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. On the Ohio judiciary for 31 years, she was the only Ohio Supreme Court justice to have been elected to all four levels of Ohio's judiciary system. She was elected to the Supreme Court of Ohio in 2004, becoming the 150th justice in the court. Early life and education Born Judith Ann Hodorowski, she grew up in northern Toledo. was the daughter of a carpenter, and the granddaughter of a coal miner. She is of Polish descent, and was baptized at St. Hedwig's Church. While young, she was a postulant at the Franciscan Sisters of Sylvania in Ohio. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Toledo, with a dual major in education and English. Early in her career, she taught students of various ages, from kindergarten to college. She was valedictorian at the University of Toledo College of Law, where she became an adjust professor in 1988. After graduating from the University of Toledo, she attended the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada, Reno, at which she was the second woman nationwide to be awarded a master's degree in judicial studies; she has taught classes in this field since 1990. Judicial career Lanzinger's professional career included many different positions in the halls of justice: Toledo Municipal Court, the Lucas County Common Pleas Court, and the Sixth District Court of Appeals.