Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Acting Chief Justice Dickson Encourages Applicants For Supreme Court

Acting Chief Justice Brent Dickson sent the following e-mail message to Indiana attorneys encouraging them to consider applying for the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by Justice Frank Sullivan's decision to step down to accept a teaching position at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis:

Dear fellow Indiana lawyer,

I was forty-four years old in 1985 when two lawyer friends urged that I consider being a candidate for a just-announced opening on the Indiana Supreme Court. I had never aspired to serve as an appellate judge, and was quite content in my seventeenth year of general law practice in Lafayette, Indiana. But their suggestion prompted me to consider the possibility and ultimately led to my appointment.

As you may know, Justice Frank Sullivan has just announced that he will retire later this summer to accept a full-time faculty position at the Indiana University McKinney School of Law. I am sending this email to urge all Indiana lawyers to seriously consider the possibility of appellate judicial service.

The application deadline for the Sullivan vacancy has not yet been established but will likely occur in late spring/early summer. When available, application details will be published on the Court’s website, http://courts.in.gov/jud-qual. To be eligible, you must be a citizen of the United States and either admitted to the practice of law in Indiana for not less than ten years or have served as a judge of an Indiana circuit or superior court for not less than five years.

In addition, for those in the Second District, Judge Carr Darden's retirement is creating a vacancy in the Court of Appeals. Applications for this vacancy must be submitted by May 9, 2012.

Appellate judicial service can be an enormously satisfying opportunity to serve your profession and your fellow Hoosiers. Please consider submitting your application.

Respectfully,
Brent E. Dickson
Acting Chief Justice
Indiana Supreme Court

1 comment:

  1. What a load of horseshit, as if this process is truly open to all attorneys. The establishment will choose one of its own, and people are encouraged to apply to give legitimacy to what is a foreordained process. Let them be honest and choose one from the pool of one they've already created.

    Further, we really need to get away from this destructive and enslaving practice of allowing only attorneys to be judges.

    It's a statewide office. All in the state should be eligible to fill it, be the applicant an author, businessman, scientist or truck driver.

    The law is created by the legislature, an office for which there are few qualifications. Determining what is within the law that the average Hoosier has created can and ought be performed by the average Hoosier.

    This practice of keeping judicial offices only for attorneys is a neat scam attorneys dreamt up for themselves, and it's nothing but an unscrupulous economic rent.

    I don't see how any thinking man can respect the product of the judicial branch.

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