Dayton gets 3 names for MN Supreme Court seat

Gov. Mark Dayton has three candidates to consider for a pending vacancy on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The Commission on Judicial Selection announced Monday it is recommending three candidates. The names sent to the governor are Minnesota Appeals Court Judge Margaret Chutich, Minnesota Appeals Court Judge Natalie Hudson and Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal.

Dayton will fill the seat being vacated by Associate Justice Alan Page, who is stepping down Aug. 31, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. The governor will interview the candidates in the coming weeks.

This will be Dayton’s third appointment to the state Supreme Court. He appointed Wilhelmina Wright in 2012 and David Lillehaug in 2013.

Here are the bios of the three candidates:

Judge Margaret H. Chutich: Judge Chutich serves as an at-large Judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. She previously served as Assistant Dean at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, as Deputy Attorney General of the Law Enforcement Section with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota. After clerking for the Honorable Diana E. Murphy in the United States District Court, Judge Chutich practiced with the law firms of Tanick & Heins and Opperman Heins & Paquin. Judge Chutich is a member of the Minnesota Women Lawyer’s Advisory Council and a former director of the YWCA of Minneapolis.

Judge Natalie E. Hudson: Judge Hudson serves as an at-large Judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Prior to her appointment to the Court of Appeals, she served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota in the Criminal Appeals and Health Licensing Divisions. Judge Hudson has also served as the City Attorney for the City of St. Paul, and was the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at the Hamline University School of Law. She is a member of the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division and is a member of the Minnesota Women Lawyers Advisory Board.

Susan L. Segal: Ms. Segal currently serves as the Minneapolis City Attorney, the chief legal officer for the city, where she manages an office with 65 attorneys and is responsible for all of the City’s legal work and adult misdemeanor/gross misdemeanor prosecution. She was first appointed as City Attorney in 2008. Previously, she was the Chief Civil Deputy for the Hennepin County Attorney, the owner of Susan Segal, PLLC, and a partner at Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty & Bennett, PA. Ms. Segal is the Chair of the Hennepin County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, a board member of the International Municipal Lawyers Association, and the immediate past President of the Minnesota City Attorney’s Association.

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