Tippecanoe County juvenile court judge Loretta Rush is Indiana’s newest Supreme Court justice – and the second woman to ever sit on the state’s high court.
Governor Mitch Daniels named Rush as his pick Friday. Hamilton County judge Steven Nation and Indianapolis attorney Geoffrey Slaughter were the other two finalists. Many in the legal community urged the governor to name a woman to the bench.
While Daniels says he wasn’t oblivious to those calls, quality was his first concern.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to think that that really was a necessary factor here,” Daniels said. “I do believe she was clearly the best available choice.”
Rush says it’s important to have a woman on the bench, but says she doesn’t feel extra pressure as the court’s lone female.
“As a judge in Tippecanoe County, I was the only elected female judge,” Rush said. “I like working with other judges, so I don’t think it’s…I think it won’t be an issue.”
Rush says she believes in judicial restraint and cited US Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia’s judicial philosophy as a model for the type of justice she’d like to be.
She is the third Daniels appointee currently on the court.