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Meierhenry Serves as Fall Commencement Speaker

Justice Judith Meierhenry will serve as the commencement speaker for the fall graduation at Dakota State University in Madison Sunday, December 16.  Commencement will be held at 2pm in the DSU Fieldhouse. 

Justice Meierhenry received her B.S. degree in 1966, her M.A. in 1968, and her J.D. in 1977 - all from the University of South Dakota.  She was an English Instructor at the University of South Dakota from 1968 to 1970 and taught at Todd County High School, Mission, SD from 1970 to 1974.  She practiced law in Vermillion from 1977 to 1978 and was appointed by Governor Janklow in 1979 to the State Economic Opportunity Office.  She was then appointed as Secretary of Labor in 1980 and Secretary of Education and Cultural Affairs in 1983.  She was a Senior Manager and Assistant General Counsel for Citibank South Dakota in Sioux Falls from 1985 to 1988.  In 1988 she was appointed by the late Governor George S. Mickelson as a Second Circuit Court Judge and in 1997 was named as Presiding Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit.

Justice Meierhenry was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Janklow in November 2002 and was retained by the voters in the 2006 general election. She is the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court in South Dakota.  Justice Meierhenry is a member of the South Dakota Bar Association, the Second Circuit Bar Association, the Clay-Union Bar Association and the National Association of Women Judges.  She served as President of the South Dakota Judge’s Association and was a member of the South Dakota Civil Pattern Jury Instruction Committee. 

Justice Meierhenry and her husband Mark live in Sioux Falls.  They have two children and seven grandchildren.