South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has named veteran Circuit Court Judge Scott Myren to the state Supreme Court, succeeding the retiring David Gilbertson in early January.
Myren has been a judge since 1994, starting as an administrative law judge, then a magistrate judge before being named to the circuit court bench in 2004.
He’s been the 5th Circuit’s presiding judge for 7 years and was reelected twice without opposition.
. Noem calls Myren “a highly-qualified, senior jurist who respects the separation of powers and the role of a judge to interpret the law as written.”
Myren says he’s “humbled and honored” by Noem’s confidence in him, and that while “no one will ever replace” Justice Gilbertson he will “try my hardest every day to live up to his legacy.
Myren is a native of Mound City who earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of South Dakota in 1985 and his law degree from the Rutgers law school.
He was in private practice in Denver briefly and served as the South Dakota Supreme Court’s permanent staff attorney from 1990 until moving to the bench.
Myren will represent the state’s 3rd Supreme Court District, which encompasses 25 counties across the central and southern part of the state from Iowa to Wyoming including Fall River, Oglala Lakota, and Bennet.