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Margaret Chutich
Margaret Chutich was a judge for Seat 2 of the Minnesota Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2016. She left office on July 31, 2024.
Chutich ran for re-election for the Seat 2 judge of the Minnesota Supreme Court. She won in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Chutich was first appointed to the court by Governor Mark Dayton (D) on January 22, 2016, in order to fill the vacancy left by Justice Wilhelmina Wright's elevation to the federal bench.[1] She was subsequently elected to the court in a nonpartisan election in 2018. Chutich retired on July 31, 2024. To learn more about this vacancy, click here.
Prior to her Minnesota Supreme Court appointment, Chutich served as a judge at-large on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. She was also appointed to this position by Dayton in 2011.[2][3]
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.[4] Chutich received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[5] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Chutich received an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota in 1980 and an J.D. from the University of Michigan in 1984.[3] Before serving on the Minnesota Supreme Court, she was a judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Prior to being a judge, she worked as an assistant dean at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, in the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, and as an assistant United States attorney in the District of Minnesota.[3]
Upon her appointment to the Minnesota Supreme Court, Chutich became the first openly gay member of the state's supreme court.[6]
Elections
2018
- See also: Minnesota Supreme Court elections, 2018
General election
General election for Minnesota Supreme Court Seat 2
Incumbent Margaret Chutich defeated Michelle L. MacDonald in the general election for Minnesota Supreme Court Seat 2 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Margaret Chutich (Nonpartisan) | 55.9 | 1,054,841 |
 | Michelle L. MacDonald (Nonpartisan)  | 43.7 | 825,770 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 7,128 | ||
| Total votes: 1,887,739 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
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2014
See also: Minnesota judicial elections, 2014
Chutich ran for re-election to the court of appeals.
Primary: She ran unopposed in the primary on August 12, 2014.
General: She was unopposed in the general election on November 4, 2014.
[7]
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.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- 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.
Margaret
Chutich
Minnesota
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Held political office as a Democrat
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Chutich donated $3,150 to Democratic candidates and organizations. She worked in the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office under Skip Humphrey (D). She was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton (D).
State supreme court judicial selection in Minnesota
- See also: Judicial selection in Minnesota
The seven judges of the Minnesota Supreme Court are chosen in nonpartisan general elections to six-year terms. Sitting judges must run for re-election if they wish to serve additional terms. While party affiliation is not designated on the ballot, incumbency is.[10]
Qualifications
Judges of the supreme court are required to be "learned in the law" and under 70 years old. Sitting judges who reach the age of 70 while in office are allowed to serve until the last day of that month.[10]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court is directly chosen by voters in a nonpartisan election. He or she serves in that capacity for a full six-year term.[10]
Vacancies
Interim vacancies on the supreme court are filled via gubernatorial appointment. After serving for at least one year, the appointed judge can run for a full term in the next general election.[10] Other candidates may file to run against them in the election.[11]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Brainerd Dispatch, "Gov. Dayton appoints Minnesota Supreme Court’s first openly gay member," January 22, 2016
- ↑ Office of the Governor, "Governor Dayton appoints Margaret Chutich and Judge John R. Rodenberg to fill at-large seats on Minnesota Court of Appeals," December 27, 2011
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Minnesota Judicial Branch, "Associate Justice Margaret H. Chutich," accessed June 29, 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.
- ↑ WDAZ 8, "First openly gay member appointed to Supreme Court: Minnesota's Margaret Chutich", January 22, 2016
- ↑ Minnesota Secretary of State, "Election Results," accessed June 29, 2021
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed September 4, 2021
- ↑ The Office of the Revisor of Statutes, "Constitution of the State of Minnesota," accessed August 8, 2016
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Minnesota • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Minnesota
State courts:
Minnesota Supreme Court • Minnesota Court of Appeals • Minnesota District Courts • Minnesota Problem-Solving Courts • Minnesota Tax Court • Minnesota Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals
State resources:
Courts in Minnesota • Minnesota judicial elections • Judicial selection in Minnesota
