Supreme Court Judicial District 1
Justice Kane was appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court by Governor Kevin Stitt. Kane has served as the Chief Justice, and the Vice-Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Justice Kane graduated from Pawhuska High School, and obtained his undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University, where he was recognized as one of the top ten men of his graduating class. He received his law degree from the University of Oklahoma School of law. In his youth, Kane spent his summers living and working on the Kane Ranch in western Osage County, Oklahoma.
Kane had the privilege of practicing law with his grandfather and his father during their lifetimes in Pawhuska. Kane is a former president of the Osage County Bar Association, and he is a Fellow of the Oklahoma Bar Association. As an attorney, he served as a part-time Assistant District Attorney for Osage and Pawnee Counties, prosecuting the child support docket. He later served as an administrative law judge for the Department of Human Services for child support enforcement in Osage, Pawnee, Washington, and Nowata counties.
Prior to his service on the Supreme Court, Kane had been appointed by Governor Brad Henry to the trial bench as the District Judge of Osage County, where he was reelected four times. Kane was responsible for the creation of Osage County’s first Drug Court. Kane formerly served as Presiding Judge for the eight-county Northeast Oklahoma Judicial Administrative District, and he is a former President of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference. As a trial judge, Kane had also served as the Presiding Judge on the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary, Trial Division. Justice Kane is a fourth-generation Oklahoma lawyer, being the greatgrandson of a member of Oklahoma’s first Supreme Court: Chief Justice Matthew John Kane I. The original Justice Kane was a delegate to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention prior to his service on the high Court. John’s great-grandmother is the late Mabelle Kennedy, a former Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury in the Truman administration.
Justice Kane’s wife, Cyndi, is an author, public speaker, and entrepreneur. The Kanes have 4 adult children.