Scott L. Kafker

Kafker graduated from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and from the University of Chicago Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1985,{{Cite web |title=Scott L. Kafker Judge Profile on Martindale.com |url=https://www.martindale.com/attorney/scott-l-kafker-654505/ |access-date=November 12, 2023 |website=www.martindale.com}} where he was on the University of Chicago Law Review.[https://www.mass.gov/service-details/supreme-judicial-court-justices Supreme Judicial Court Justices] He served as a law clerk to Justice Charles L. Levin of the Michigan Supreme Court and Judge Mark L. Wolf of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. After clerking, he entered private practice as an associate at the Boston law firm of Foley, Hoag & Eliot, where he worked on labor and employment cases and other commercial disputes.{{cite news |title=How the state's next top Appeals Court judge has handled business disputes |last=Ryan |first=Greg |work=Boston Business Journal |date=July 8, 2015 |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2015/07/08/how-the-state-s-next-top-appeals-court-judge-has.html}} During the administration of Governor Bill Weld, Kafker served as deputy chief legal counsel to the governor and chief legal counsel for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

In 2001, Kafker was appointed to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. He was appointed chief justice of that court on July 22, 2015. During his time on the appeals court, Kafker wrote close to 1,000 decisions.{{cite news |title=Baker nominates Appeals Court chief for state's highest court |first=Jim |last=O’Sullivan |work=Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/06/26/charlie-baker-tap-appeals-chief-for-high-court/qjqThFFUw69lmJkVXMdIZI/story.html |date=June 26, 2017}}

File:Swearing-in-ceremony-for-appeals-court-chief-justice-kafker-10515 21377811243 o.jpg to the Supreme Judicial Court by Governor Charlie Baker]]

On June 26, 2017, Kafker was nominated by Governor Charlie Baker to replace retiring Justice Geraldine Hines on the Supreme Judicial Court. He was Governor Baker's fifth nominee for the seven-member court. Kafker was confirmed the following month by a unanimous vote of the Governor's Council.{{cite news |title=Baker ceremoniously swears in Kafker as SJC associate justice |last=Dowd |first=William |date=November 28, 2017 |work=Wicked Local North of Boston |url=http://northofboston.wickedlocal.com/news/20171118/baker-ceremoniously-swears-in-kafker-as-sjc--associate-justice}}

In September 2020, the Supreme Judicial Court unanimously denied a legal challenge to power purchase agreements for hydroelectric power between Massachusetts utilities and Hydro-Québec Energy Services.{{Cite news|date=October 23, 2020|title=Hydro power cleared to pump up power in Massachusetts|work=Boston Herald|url=https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/10/23/hydro-power-cleared-to-pump-up-power-in-massachusetts/}} The agreements called for clean electricity generated in Canada to be transmitted to Massachusetts via a transmission line running from Québec to Maine.

Kafker's opinion for the court explained that the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities had "reasonably and realistically" interpreted the applicable legal requirements in approving the agreements, and that the Department's decision was supported by "substantial evidence and sufficient rationale." The opinion is noteworthy in part for its brief discussion of the physics of electricity; Kafker's analysis noted that "[f]ortunately (for this court) the laws of physics are not in dispute."{{Cite web|title=NEXTERA ENERGY RESOURCES, LLC vs. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES & others|url=http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/485/485mass595.html}}

The decision cleared the way for Massachusetts to import hydroelectric energy from Canada. However, the project relied on the construction of a 145-mile transmission line through western Maine. The transmission line has been stalled by other legal hurdles and political opposition in Maine, including a state-wide referendum in which Maine residents voted to halt the project.{{Cite news|last=Wade|first=Christian M.|date=March 23, 2021|title=Hydropower project faces more headwinds|work=Salem News|url=https://www.salemnews.com/news/state_news/hydropower-project-faces-more-headwinds/article_86ba8588-c9a8-57b8-8f11-ee31a72f193d.html}}{{Cite news|date=November 3, 2021|title=Maine voters deal a blow to hydropower corridor to Massachusetts|work=Boston Herald|url=https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/11/03/maine-voters-deal-a-blow-to-hydropower-corridor-to-massachusetts/}}{{Cite news|last=Panetta|first=Alexander|date=November 3, 2021|title=Maine referendum deals blow to Hydro-Québec project|work=CBC|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/maine-vote-hydro-quebec-1.6233569}}

In March 2021, Kafker authored an opinion ruling that the ministerial exception—which shields religious institutions from discrimination lawsuits by employees carrying out religious functions—did not apply to a lawsuit filed by a former instructor at Gordon College, which is a private Christian institution. The instructor contended that she had been fired "on the basis of her association with LGBTQ+ persons or on the basis of her gender." Kafker explained that the instructor did not meet the definition of a "minister," in part because she was never ordained and never received formal religious training, and so the ministerial exception did not bar her lawsuit.{{Cite web |date=March 5, 2021 |title=DeWeese-Boyd v. Gordon College (Mass. SJC) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/supreme-court/2021/sjc-12988.html |website=Justia}}{{Cite news |last=Andersen |first=Travis |date=March 5, 2021 |title=SJC: Christian college can't claim former social work professor was minister in legal dispute |work=Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/05/metro/sjc-christian-college-cant-claim-former-social-work-professor-was-minister-legal-dispute/}} The United States Supreme Court declined a request to review the decision, though four justices (Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett) expressed an interest in revisiting the scope of the ministerial exception in a future case.{{Cite news |last=Silliman |first=Daniel |date=March 1, 2022 |title=SCOTUS Won't Weigh Whether Christian College Profs Are Ministers—For Now |work=Christianity Today |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/march/scotus-ministerial-exception-college-gordon-deweese-boyd.html}}{{Cite web |title=Gordon College v. DeWeese-Boyd |url=https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/gordon-college-v-deweese-boyd/ |access-date=March 1, 2022 |website=SCOTUSblog}}

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{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court}}|years=2017–present}}

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{{Current Massachusetts statewide political officials}}

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Category:1959 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American judges

Category:Amherst College alumni

Category:Judges of the Massachusetts Appeals Court

Category:Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Category:People associated with Foley Hoag

Category:University of Chicago Law School alumni