Chief Justice Gildea to leave Minnesota high court in October
Updated: 3:18 p.m.
Chief Justice Lorie S. Gildea announced Thursday she would leave the Minnesota Supreme Court in October, departing after more than a dozen years in the top role and leaving the panel with just a single Republican appointee.
Gildea called her service on the court “the honor of a lifetime.” And she said it was the right time for the court to make a transition, too.
“Our courts have largely recovered from the impacts of the pandemic, we secured important investments for our justice system in the recently completed legislative session, our judiciary is on solid fiscal footing and the Minnesota Judicial Council has adopted an innovative strategic plan that will guide the work of our courts in the next biennium,” Gildea said in a written statement.
“This is a moment of stability and opportunity for our state’s judiciary, and a good time to hand the reins to a new chief justice,” she continued.
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Gildea has been on the Supreme Court since 2006, first as an associate justice. She was elevated to chief justice in 2010. Both times she was selected by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Gildea won two elections to remain on the court and her current term would have run through 2025.
She steered the courts through pandemic upheaval, which caused many proceedings to go remote and led to a case backlog that is still being addressed. She also expanded audio and visual access to criminal case proceedings, including a new policy that takes effect in January. And she oversaw the addition of more treatment courts to recognize underlying factors of criminal actions and the need for diversionary penalties in certain circumstances.
The chief justice is also a member of the state Board of Pardons otherwise made up of the governor and attorney general.
Her exit will give DFL Gov. Tim Walz the opportunity to fill the slot, his second selection to the court. Between Walz and predecessor Mark Dayton, five of seven justices are DFL appointees.
Walz released a statement thanking the chief justice for her service.
“She has been a strong defender of the judicial branch. I have seen firsthand the balance and thoughtfulness she brings to her work each and every day,” he said, adding he'll lay out the process for choosing a new chief in coming weeks.
Only Justice G. Barry Anderson is a Republican appointee; he hits the mandatory judicial retirement age of 70 in October 2024.
Gildea said no matter who appointed the justices, the court worked hard to remain a “collegial and collective body.”
“Our court has always strived to reach consensus on the difficult issues that come before us and the vast majority of our opinions are written without a dissent,” she said in her written statement. “It has been a privilege to serve alongside such esteemed jurists, and I am confident my colleagues will carry on this spirit of collegiality into the future.”