Virginia Linder

Virginia Linder was born in Colorado, the daughter of two teachers, but grew up mostly in Carmichael, California. Linder earned her first degree in political science from Southern Oregon State College in Ashland, Oregon in 1975. clerking in the Appellate Division of the Attorney General's Office. ==Legal career==

She began her career as an Assistant Attorney General in the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice, starting in 1980. Then in 1984 Linder was appointed as assistant solicitor general of Oregon. ==Judicial career==

In 1997, she was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor John Kitzhaber, and was re-elected in 1998 and 2004. Because no candidate won a majority of the votes, Linder and Roberts advanced to the November runoff. In that runoff, Linder defeated Roberts by 52% to 48%. Linder's campaign committee raised just over $350,000 for her campaign but was outspent by more than two-to-one by the Roberts committee, which raised over $710,000. Since 1998 she has been a professor at Willamette's law school. When in office, she served as one of eight openly LGBT supreme court justices in the United States, alongside fellow Oregonian Rives Kistler, Colorado Supreme Court justice Monica Marquez, Hawaii Supreme Court justice Sabrina McKenna, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice Barbara Lenk, Connecticut Supreme Court justice Andrew J. McDonald, Vermont Supreme Court justice Beth Robinson, and Washington Supreme Court justice Mary Yu. Her 2006 election campaign was supported by the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. == See also ==