New justice looks to guide development of case law

Court of Appeals Judge Junius P. Fulton III will become the Supreme Court of Virginia‘s newest justice on Jan. 1, 2026, after General Assembly confirmation following a one-day reconvened session on April 2.

Fulton, who has served on the Court of Appeals of Virginia since the court’s expansion to 18 judges in 2021, will assume the seat currently held by Chief Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn, who is retiring.

“The opportunity to really shape case law as it relates to the continued development of Virginia case law and jurisprudence is important to me,” Fulton said during a joint meeting of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice. Fulton added that on the court, he would “carefully guide the construction and further development of case law in the commonwealth of Virginia.”

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who tracks the judicial nomination process, said Fulton is a “solid choice” for the court.

“He’s well-respected, and judges and lawyers speak very highly of him,” Tobias said. “He’s mainstream, intelligent and hardworking, all the qualities you want on the Supreme Court, and he’s shown he can do the appellate work.”

Retired Virginia Beach attorney Steven Emmert, who focused his practice on appellate work, said he does not foresee a shift in the Supreme Court of Virginia’s philosophical balance, noting that the “overwhelming majority of Supreme Court of Virginia decisions are unanimous.”

“Judge Fulton is a moderate and he’s replacing another moderate,” Emmert said. “The court’s solid bloc of five strong conservative votes will still be able to steer the few truly close-call cases in its preferred direction.”

Tobias agreed that the court remains “a moderate to conservative court,” and noted that most of the court’s decisions reach a consensus. “Occasionally they have concurrences and dissents, but it’s not at all like on the [U.S.] Supreme Court, where you have ideological blocks at the federal level,” Tobias said.

Drug court pioneer

A native of the Hampton Roads region and a graduate of Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, Fulton’s involvement in the law began as a child when his father was killed by his business partner.

“He attended the murder trial, and that sparked his interest,” Emmert said. “No one is really good at alternative history except novelists, but if his father had lived, that young boy might have gone on to become an engineer or a banker or something else.”

Fulton went on to attend the University of Virginia and the College of William & Mary Law School before embarking on a career in private practice and a brief spell with the Norfolk commonwealth’s attorney’s office.

The court’s solid bloc of five strong conservative votes will still be able to steer the few truly close-call cases in its preferred direction.

— Steven Emmert, Virginia Beach

Fulton was appointed to the Norfolk Circuit Court in 1996, where he sat for 25 years. While on the court, Fulton played an instrumental role in creating a drug court, which he presided over for two decades, becoming the longest serving drug court judge in Virginia.

“Judge Fulton’s dedication in Norfolk to the drug court is astonishing,” Norfolk attorney Griffin O’Hanlon said. “The way in which he championed folks recovering from substance abuse while also instilling in them discipline and personal accountability was astonishing. He suffered no fools in his drug court.”

Virginia Beach attorney Kellam Parks, a past president of the Norfolk & Portsmouth Bar Association, also highlighted Fulton’s drug court leadership.

“He spearheaded that because he really believes in second chances and he wants to judge people on the entirety of their person, not how they are in a particular bad situation or one bad day,” Parks said.

Before the joint committee on April 1, Fulton said that while on the appeals court, he has “had the opportunity to guide case law in the commonwealth,” highlighting experience in First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, search and seizure and sovereign immunity cases.

Fulton’s authored decisions include Minium v. Hines, where the appellate court held that the names of law enforcement officers are not exempt by the Freedom of Information Act, and Yellow Mountain Village Mobil Home Park Association v. Yellow Mountain MHP LLC, where the court determined that Virginia law does not prohibit a landlord from raising rent during the lease period.

‘Dignified demeanor’

O’Hanlon began his legal career in 2011 as a public defender, during which he appeared before Fulton.

Even if Judge Fulton was going to rule against you, you did always feel confident that you got a fair shake undoubtedly and that he was intelligently applying the law to your facts.

— Griffin O’Hanlon, Norfolk

“I truly felt that when I was a young lawyer, he did think it was part of his responsibility to foster the growth of newer lawyers and knowing that the entire bar was better if the quality of lawyer was high,” O’Hanlon said.

O’Hanlon also recalled Fulton’s “dignified demeanor and humility that exuded off the bench.”

“Even if Judge Fulton was going to rule against you, you did always feel confident that you got a fair shake undoubtedly and that he was intelligently applying the law to your facts,” O’Hanlon said.

Parks, who practiced in front of Fulton when he was a circuit judge, said Fulton “will make a fantastic justice.”

“I think that the practical experience as a trial judge, in addition to both his civil and criminal practice before that, really gives him that well-rounded approach to sit on the Supreme Court,” Parks said.

Parks recalled that Fulton had “a real ability to interject humanity and oftentimes humor into his interactions, which is difficult in any court.”

“He really took his job seriously, to represent the best of what the bench should do,” Parks said. “While I was happy for him that he went on to the Court of Appeals, I was sad that we lost him as a circuit court judge.”

With regional diversity often a consideration for judicial appointees, Parks noted the value of having a justice from Hampton Roads on the bench.

“To have somebody who’s from Tidewater, knows the military presence and knows the citizens of Norfolk and the issues we face in Hampton Roads, I think that gives a good, well-rounded bench, and I think it’s smart for the Legislature to get that regional diversity,” Parks said.

Emmert, who practiced before Fulton in circuit court and once at the appellate level, said the judge’s “judicial demeanor always matches what I regard as ideal: courtesy, patience and fairness.”

“When he asks a question, the advocate will know that he’s asking because he really wants to know the answer,” Emmert said.

O’Hanlon recalled stories of Fulton’s law school students predicting he would one day ascend to the commonwealth’s high court.

“I take it as a tremendous sense of pride in that I can look at my own legal career and understand I knew in the moment that I was getting to appear before one of the most gifted jurists that I would ever appear in front of in my legal career,” O’Hanlon said.

Other appointments

In addition to Fulton, the General Assembly filled five other vacancies on the commonwealth’s courts.

“I think people were pleased that [the legislature] filled almost all of the lower court vacancies,” Tobias said. “It’s good to have those new judges there in those positions, because for some jurisdictions there may only be one judge or a small number.”

Fulton’s Court of Appeals seat will be filled by Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Kevin M. Duffan. However, Duffan’s circuit court seat does not have a successor named. Portsmouth attorney Aaron F. Kass’ nomination was removed from the block of judicial appointments.

The General Assembly also appointed Louis K. Nagy to the 26th District General District Court, Andrew T. Elders and Tamika D. Jones to the 19th District General District Court, and Kara L. Larson to the 16th District Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.