During Thursday’s General Assembly session on Bank Street in Richmond, lawmakers elected Virginia Court of Appeals Judge Teresa M. Chafin to the Supreme Court of Virginia. The new addition to the court comes as an upcoming retirement on the bench was announced in January.
Judge Chafin was sworn in to the Commonwealth’s appellate court on June 18, 2012. Previously, she served as a 26th Judicial Circuit judge in Tazewell County from 2005 until 2012. From 2002 to 2005, she was Tazewell County’s Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court judge.
Judge Chafin, who is also the sister of State Senator Ben Chafin (R-Tazewell), is set to replace Judge Elizabeth Ann McClanahan on the seven-member Supreme Court of Virginia. Although her term ends in 2023, McClanahan announced last month that she would be retiring from the Commonwealth’s highest court on September 1, 2019 after eight years of service.
“The Supreme Court of Virginia and our Commonwealth will be well served by the addition of Judge Teresa Chafin,” said Speaker of the House of Delegates Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights). “Justice McClanahan served admirably, but will be succeeded by a jurist equal in stature, ability, and experience. I am proud of the General Assembly’s proven track record of elevating women to not only the Supreme Court, but also to judicial posts across Virginia.”
The House GOP said in a press release that in the time Republicans have controlled at least one chamber of the General Assembly since 2001, over 100 women have been elected to judgeships across the Commonwealth, including four women who have been elected to full terms on the Supreme Court of Virginia.
On Thursday, the General Assembly also moved to elect Clifford L. “Clay” Athey to succeed Chafin on the Court of Appeals. Athey, a former Republican member of the House of Delegates between 2002 and 2011, was appointed in 2012 by then-Governor Bob McDonnell (R) as a judge on the 26th Judicial Circuit in the northeastern part of the Commonwealth.
“Judge Athey is an experienced judge and is wholly committed to serving the Commonwealth,” said Chairman of the Senate Committee on Courts of Justice Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham). “Clay served the Commonwealth in the General Assembly for 10 years and has spent the last seven years as a Circuit Court judge, handing a variety of complex cases. He will make a strong addition to the Virginia Court of Appeals.”