Judge Myron Duhart hears his first oral argument for the Supreme Court.

Judge Myron Duhart hears his first oral argument for the Supreme Court.

Sixth District Court of Appeals Judge Myron Duhart was raised by his grandmother, who never imagined he would go from sitting with her in the kitchen to one day sitting on the bench of the Supreme Court of Ohio.

“I wish she had lived long enough to see this day,” said Judge Duhart, who heard his first Supreme Court oral argument in the death penalty appeal of State v. Garrett.

The judge sat in place of Justice Jennifer Brunner, who recused herself. The Ohio Constitution states that in the event of a justice’s recusal, the chief justice selects an appellate court judge to sit temporarily on the Supreme Court.

Judge Duhart – born and raised in Toledo – has been a member of the Sixth District since February 2021. That achievement is among many in his life – attorney, common pleas judge, husband, and father – made possible by his maternal grandmother, Mary Lou Maddox. The granddaughter of a sharecropper in rural Kentucky, she became the judge’s guardian after both of his parents died when he was young.

“As a valedictorian of her high school, she understood the value of education and how education provided the highest probability of changing one’s life circumstances,” said Judge Duhart.

Due to his humble upbringing, the judge enlisted in the U.S. Army to attain that higher education. Serving the country also allowed him to continue the military legacies of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Citing it as one of the “best decisions [he] ever made,” Judge Duhart’s Army experience provided a foundation that eventually led to the legal profession.

“You interact with people from all walks of life and are put in high-pressure situations tasked with a goal or objective, and you have to get it done,” Judge Duhart said.

Military training equipped him for additional leadership experiences. As a college and law student, in addition to his studies, he served in student government, interned for a state representative, and became a law clerk for then Toledo Municipal Judge Robert Penn.

“When I reflect back over the arc of my career, those experiences were profound points in my life where I saw how the power of the law had a real-life impact on the community,” Judge Duhart said.

Passing down the family legacy of military service and interest in the law has continued with the judge’s three children. Two of them – Myranda and Dannie – served in the Army. Myranda and her sister Mycala are both in law school.

Just like his daughters, Judge Duhart remains immersed in learning about the law. On the appellate bench, he’s most inspired when he reads briefs that include novel legal arguments that require him to “think long and hard about what the law is and what law we're making.”

When not on the Supreme Court bench, the judge’s thoughts occasionally extend back to when he was a child, at his grandmother’s kitchen table decades earlier, humbled by what he’s accomplished and grateful for her guidance.

“I know she's looking down and I know she's proud,” said Judge Duhart.