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Loretta H. Rush
2012 - Present
2034
12
Loretta H. Rush is a judge of the Indiana Supreme Court. She assumed office on November 7, 2012. Her current term ends on December 31, 2034.
Rush ran for re-election for judge of the Indiana Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.
Rush became the chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court on August 18, 2014.[1] She succeeded Brent Dickson. Rush is the first woman in the state to serve in this role.[2][3] The Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission reappointed her to another five-year term in 2019.[4]
Rush first became a member of the court by appointment. She was appointed by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels in September 2012 to succeed Justice Frank Sullivan, Jr.[5] She was retained in 2014.[6] To read more about judicial selection in Indiana, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[7] Rush received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[8] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Rush received her undergraduate degree from Purdue University in 1980 and her J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 1983.[9][6]
Rush worked at a law firm for 15 years before serving as a Tippecanoe County Superior Court judge. She was elected to that position three times. In 2012, Gov. Daniels appointed her to the state supreme court. Voters retained her in 2014. In August of that year, the judicial nominating commission named her chief justice, to which position the commission reappointed Rush in 2019.[6]
Rush co-chaired the National Judicial Opioid Task Force. As of July 2021, she was vice president of the Conference of Chief Justices Board of Directors. She was appointed a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.[6]
Elections
2024
See also: Indiana Supreme Court elections, 2024
Indiana Supreme Court, Loretta Rush's seat
Loretta H. Rush was retained to the Indiana Supreme Court on November 5, 2024 with 71.4% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
71.4
|
1,636,577 | ||
No |
28.6
|
655,549 | |||
Total Votes |
2,292,126 | ||||
|
|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Rush in this election.
2014
- See also: Indiana judicial elections, 2014
Rush was retained to the Indiana Supreme Court.[6]
2010
- See also: Indiana judicial elections, 2010
Rush was re-elected to the Tippecanoe County Superior Court, Number 3, in 2010. She received 10,822 votes.[10]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Loretta H. Rush did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Ballotpedia currently provides campaign finance data for all federal- and state-level candidates from 2020 and later. We are continuously working to expand our data to include prior elections. That information will be published here as we acquire it. If you would like to help us provide this data, please consider donating to Ballotpedia.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Loretta
Rush
Indiana
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Rush donated $55 to Republican candidates and organizations. She was appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) in 2012. At the time of her appointment, Indiana was a Republican trifecta.
Noteworthy events
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| Coronavirus pandemic |
| Select a topic from the dropdown below to learn more.
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Rush announced on September 13 that she had tested positive for coronavirus and was quarantining at home.[13]
State supreme court judicial selection in Indiana
- See also: Judicial selection in Indiana
The five justices on the Indiana Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. The Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission is responsible for providing the names of three nominees to the governor, who must then select a justice from that list.[14][15] The commission is made up of six voting members from the three geographic districts covered by the Indiana Court of Appeals. Members include three attorneys, elected by attorneys in their respective geographic districts, and three non-attorneys, appointed by the governor. The chief justice or his or her designee serves as an ex officio member of the commission.[15]
Justices serve at least two years following their initial appointment. They must stand for retention at the first statewide general election to remain in office. If retained, justices serve a ten-year term and must stand for retention every ten years after that point to remain in office.[16]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. citizen;
- an Indiana resident;
- admitted to practice law in the state for at least 10 years or have served as a trial court judge for at least five years; and
- under the age of 75 (retirement at 75 is mandatory).[14]
Chief Justice
The chief justice is selected by the Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission from the members of the supreme court and serves a five-year term.[15] In the event of a vacancy, the justice with the longest tenure on the supreme court serves as acting chief justice until the nominating commission fills the position.[15]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, the position is filled as it normally would be had the vacancy occurred at the end of a justice's term. The Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission provides the names of three nominees to the governor, who must then select a justice from that list.[14][15] The new appointee serves at least two years following his or her initial appointment and must stand for retention at the first statewide general election to remain in office.[16] The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
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Officeholder Indiana Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ Indy Star, "Loretta Rush becomes chief justice today," August 18, 2014
- ↑ NBC Chicago, "Indiana Gets First Female Supreme Court Chief Justice," August 7, 2014
- ↑ Indy Star, "Loretta Rush named first female chief justice of Indiana Supreme Court," August 6, 2014
- ↑ Daily News, "Rush reappointed as chief justice of state Supreme Court," August 21, 2019
- ↑ IndyStar, "Loretta Rush named first female chief justice of Indiana Supreme Court," August 6, 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 IN.gov, "Hon Loretta H Rush," accessed July 12, 2021
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Martindale, "Judge Profile: Hon. Loretta Hogan Rush," accessed July 12, 2021
- ↑ Indiana Courts, "Indiana Primary Election Results," archived October 17, 2014
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ WBIW, "Chief Justice Loretta Rush Tests Positive for COVID-19," September 14, 2020
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 National Center for State Courts, "Method of Judicial Selection: Indiana," accessed Aug. 23, 2021
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 State of Indiana, "Judicial Nominating Commission Fact Sheet," accessed Aug. 23, 2021
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 State of Indiana, "About the Court," accessed Aug. 23, 2021
Federal courts:
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Northern District of Indiana, Southern District of Indiana • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Northern District of Indiana, Southern District of Indiana
State courts:
Indiana Supreme Court • Indiana Court of Appeals • Indiana Tax Court • Indiana Superior Courts • Indiana Circuit Courts • Indiana City Courts • Indiana County Courts • Indiana Municipal Courts • Indiana Small Claims Courts • St. Joseph County Probate Court • Indiana Town Courts
State resources:
Courts in Indiana • Indiana judicial elections • Judicial selection in Indiana
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