The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 19 upheld the $1 million verdict in favor of a former Butler County Common Pleas Court magistrate who claimed she was fired because she’s Jewish, the Hamilton Journal-News reported.

A U.S. District Court jury in Cincinnati sided with Kimberly Edelstein in the case against Common Pleas Court Judge Greg Stephens in February 2023.

Edelstein worked as a magistrate in Butler County when she asked her supervisor — Stephens — for eight days off during the High Holidays in 2016, according to the lawsuit she filed in 2017.

“Holy cow, eight days!” Stephens yelled back at her, according to the lawsuit. She was fired four days later and claims the judge and two prosecutors named in the lawsuit disparaged her to other employers, making it difficult for her to find work.

Her lawsuit spun through the court system where she had once worked for the next several years.

Judges dismissed Edelstein’s claims against one prosecutor and ruled against her appeal of the case against the other.

But they allowed her religious discrimination claim against Stephens to go forward to a jury trial, saying there was evidence that could find the judge’s dismissal “at least in part” motivated by Edelstein’s desire to observe the Jewish holidays.

Edelstein’s case has cost Butler County at least $775,914 in legal fees to date, according to the Journal-News.

Court filings show that Edelstein accused Stephens, who is also a Baptist pastor, of “extreme Christian” beliefs and of following a doctrine with an “attitude toward Jews,” and also said that his court had made fun of her description of Passover preparations.

In 2019, as her lawsuit was making its way through the courts, Edelstein told the Cincinnati Enquirer she had experienced suicidal thoughts after being unable to find work.

She applied for nearly 200 jobs in the aftermath of her firing but didn’t get any of them, she said, adding that she had resorted to using food pantries to feed her family.

Court documents showed that Jewish Vocational Services, a local nonprofit, was reluctant to help her for fear of litigation.

— JTA & The Dayton Jewish Observer

To read the complete September 2025 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.