Political Quotes

“I would like to take a moment to pay tribute to a remarkable and unique person, Vermont Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Skoglund, who will soon be retiring after serving 25 years with the Vermont judiciary. Justice Skoglund is what we all want to see in a jurist and public servant. She is dedicated, personable, and highly committed to the rule of law, but her path to the Vermont Supreme Court was anything but typical. As a single mother working hard to get by in the 1970s, law school was not an option. Instead, she took advantage of Vermont's ``Reading the Law'' approach that allowed her to study while serving as an apprentice of sorts with the Vermont Attorney General's office. After being admitted to the Vermont Bar, she would go on to serve as chief of the civil law and public protection divisions in the AG's office before being appointed to the bench in 1994 by then-Governor Howard Dean. She would be elevated to the supreme court just 3 years later. At the time, she was only the second woman to serve on Vermont's highest court. Today, women make up the majority of its five justices. I have had the pleasure of knowing Justice Skoglund during her many years of living and working in my hometown of Montpelier. Her personal story was so compelling that she was my first choice in 2008 to keynote Vermont's Women's Economic Opportunity Conference, an annual event I have now hosted for 23 years.…”