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Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Ind. Courts - Who will be the next Chief Justice of Indiana?

In a Dec. 12, 2006 ILB entry headed "Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard has filed for re-appointment as Chief Justice of Indiana," I called attention to this public notice on the Court's website:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING AND PUBLIC NOTICE OF CANDIDATE FOR APPOINTMENT TO CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIANA

The Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission issues this Public Notice pursuant to IC 5-14-1.5-5, IC 33-27-3-2, and IC 33-27-3-6. Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard has filed for re-appointment as Chief Justice of Indiana and has consented to public disclosure of pertinent candidate information within the parameters of IC 33-27-3-2(b), (d), and (g). On Wednesday, December 13, 2006, the Nominating Commission will convene at approximately 10:30 a.m. in Room 319, State House, Indianapolis, Indiana, in an open meeting, for the purpose of interviewing Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard.

The candidate's application and any attributable communications concerning the candidate will be available for public inspection and copying pursuant to IC 33-27-3-2(d) and IC 33-27-3-6(e).

An agenda will be posted at Room 319, State House, Indianapolis, Indiana pursuant to IC 5-14-1.5-4. [emphasis added]

The entry also quoted from p. 2 of my paper , "Voting to Retain or Reject Indiana Judges and Justices" :
How is the Chief Justice selected? Article 7, section 3 provides in part: “The Chief Justice of the State shall be selected by the judicial nominating commission from the members of the Supreme Court and he shall retain that office for a period of five years, subject to reappointment in the same manner, except that a member of the Court may resign the office of Chief Justice without resigning from the Court.”

Justice Shepard initially was named Chief Justice in March of 1987, which means that he has been reappointed in 1992, 1997, and 2002. His current term ends in 2007.

Really, that should have said, his current term ends "in March 2007."

And this current term ends March 2012. In December of 2006, Chief Justice reapplied for consideration for another five-year term three months in advance.

Questions: But when are applications to be submitted for the position of new Chief Justice and will the justice selected to fill the CJ's seat be eligible?

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 7, 2011 10:23 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts