Daniels appoints IU alumna Rush to Supreme Court

IU School of Law alumna Loretta Rush is now the 108th justice of the Indiana Supreme Court.

Gov. Mitch Daniels made the announcement Friday. Rush is Daniels’ third appointment to the court and only the second woman to ever serve on the court in its 196 year history.

The first was Myra Selby in 1995.

Rush has served as a Tippecanoe County juvenile court judge since 1998.

Before her time as a judge, Rush was an associate, and later a partner, at the Lafayette, law firm Reiling, Teder, Withered and Rush for 14 years.

In her years in the courtroom, hundreds of children have come before Rush, and she has worked to improve child welfare as the chair of the Indiana Juvenile Justice Improvement Committee.

“How we treat our vulnerable children is very indicative of how we are doing as a society,” Rush said in her application. “Judges working with children and families in our justice system have to get it right. These cases are the most complicated, challenging cases that I have encountered in my legal career and I am very thankful for having had the opportunity to work on each and every one of them.”

Rush, 54, is originally from Scranton, Pa. She earned her undergraduate degree at Purdue University and her law degree from IU in 1983.

Rush replaced the now-retired Justice Frank E. Sullivan, Jr.

Hannah Buxbaum, interim dean of the Maurer School of Law, said the school is honored any time a graduate is named to a high court in the state.

“As her long-standing commitment to improving juvenile services in the state has shown, she has a sense of fairness and justice that will make her especially effective on the Supreme Court,” Buxbaum said.

Rush has volunteered as a judge at the law school’s Moot Court Competition, a program run by students that strengthens written and oral appellate advocacy.

She herself was the moot court champion and best oralist in 1982.

Rush will bring beneficial experience to the court, Buxbaum said.

“Judge Rush will bring further expertise and experience to an already highly respected court,” Buxbaum said. “This will result in an even more effective judicial branch for the citizens of the state.”

Daniels, too, spoke of Rush’s experience.

“In studying Judge Rush’s stellar legal and judicial career, hearing from a diverse multitude of her admirers and observing her firsthand as she helped us bring reform and improvement to Indiana’s child welfare system, I concluded she is the best choice among a strong set of finalists,” Daniels said in a press release.