Nominating Commission Presents Governor Daniels with Nominees

According to the Indiana Law Blog, the Judicial Nominating Commission submitted this six-page letter to Governor Daniels yesterday.

Governor Daniels has until April 30 to name the next justice. Failing that, then-acting Chief Justice Dickson would select Chief Justice Shepard’s replacement under Article 7 Section 10 of Indiana’s Constitution.


Once the next justice joins the Court, the Nominating Commission will select the next Chief Justice. Justice Dickson will become the chair of the Nominating Commission on March 5 as designated by Chief Justice Shepard (allowed by Art. 7 § 9). Chief Justice Shepard will be Acting Chief Justice as the most-senior justice (Art. 7 § 3) until his retirement from the Court on March 23, when Justice Dickson will become acting Chief Justice for all purposes under Article 7 Section 3.

When Governor Daniels last named a justice to the Court, he took forty-three days from formal presentation to announcement that he had selected Justice Steven David. According to the Indiana Lawyer, Governor Daniels has already met with the three finalists Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Cale Bradford, Indiana Criminal Justice Institute Director Mark Massa and Indiana Judicial Center Director Jane Seigel. Daniels expects to name the next justice “way ahead of the deadline.”

In explaining why he sees gender as nothing more than a tie-breaker, Daniels explained his selection criteria: “We’ve got to have the best qualified judge, one with the best temperament, and I want to see someone who will respect the separations of power and boundaries of judicial decision-making.”