Stephanie Thacker


Stephanie Dawn Thacker is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Early life and education

Born Stephanie Dawn Young in Huntington, West Virginia, she was raised in Hamlin, West Virginia. Thacker earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in marketing, magna cum laude, from Marshall University in 1987 and her Juris Doctor, with honors, from West Virginia University in 1990.

Professional career

After graduating from law school, Thacker spent two years working in the Pittsburgh office of the law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. She then worked briefly for the West Virginia Office of the Attorney General before joining the law firm King, Betts & Allen. In 1994, Thacker took a job in the United States Attorney's office for the Southern District of West Virginia, serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division and handling a wide range of criminal prosecutions.
In 1999, Thacker moved to Washington, D.C. to work as a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. She worked there for seven years, serving as Deputy Chief of Litigation for two years and then as Principal Deputy Chief of Litigation for five years. She also was part of the team that prosecuted the first case the United States ever brought involving the Violence Against Women Act. In 2006, Thacker joined the Charleston, West Virginia, law firm Guthrie & Thomas as a partner.

Federal judicial service

In July 2011, the West Virginia Record reported that President Obama would select Thacker to the judicial vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that had been created by the death of Judge M. Blane Michael. Michael had died in March 2011. On September 8, 2011, Obama formally nominated Thacker to be a judge on the Fourth Circuit. The Judiciary Committee reported her nomination to the floor of the Senate on November 3, 2011. The United States Senate confirmed her nomination by a vote of 91–3 on April 16, 2012. She received her commission on April 17, 2012.
In October 2017, Thacker wrote for the panel majority when it found that the Bladensburg Peace Cross memorial from World War I now violated the Constitution's Establishment Clause and ordering either its arms removed or the entire monument razed. Her judgement was ultimately reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in American Legion v. American Humanist Association.
In April 2018, Thacker wrote for the majority when it found that a Maryland law prohibiting price gouging in prescription drug prices violated the constitution's Dormant Commerce Clause.