By Tom Markland, The Journal
MARTINSBURG — “The decisions I make now as a Supreme Court Justice affect everybody in the state,” Thomas Ewing, West Virginia’s newest Supreme Court Justice, told a room of around 25 seventh and ninth graders during a visit with students at Saint Joseph School in Martinsburg this week.
That was how Justice Ewing, appointed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey in August, introduced himself to the classroom, before answering questions from students that ranged from sentencing and criminal law to social media and career paths.
Ewing comes to the bench from Fayette County, where he was appointed to serve as a Circuit Judge in 2019. His career has been shaped by cases involving abuse, neglect and the struggles of families caught in the cycle of addiction and poverty. That work, he said, prepared him for the gravity of making decisions at the appellate level.
“When I made a decision as a Circuit Court judge, it just affected those parties and maybe set law for my community,” Ewing said, “But as a Supreme Court judge, when we decide what the law is, it applies to the whole state.”
