• ALAN PAGE, 63, of Minneapolis, was elected to the Supreme Court in 1992 and is the longest-serving current justice. Page, a former Minnesota Vikings great who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, worked eight years under DFL Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III before joining the court.
• PAUL H. ANDERSON, 66, of Inver Grove Heights, was chief judge of the state appellate court when Republican Gov. Arne Carlson appointed him to the high court in 1994. After law school, Anderson worked as a special assistant attorney general for the Department of Public Safety and practiced law for 18 years with former GOP Gov. Harold LeVander.
• HELEN MEYER, 55, of Edina, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2002 by Gov. Jesse Ventura of the Independence Party. Meyer worked for nearly 20 years as a civil trial lawyer and mediator. Before joining the bench, Meyer contributed money to former Sen. Paul Wellstone and other DFL candidates and groups.
• LORIE GILDEA, 47, of Minneapolis, was a Hennepin County District judge when she was appointed to the Supreme Court by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2006. Gildea practiced law in Washington, D.C., worked as a University of Minnesota lawyer and prosecuted cases for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. She contributed to Norm Coleman's gubernatorial campaign in 1998.
• CHRISTOPHER DIETZEN, 62, of Bloomington, was an Appellate Court judge when Pawlenty appointed him to the Supreme Court last year. Dietzen was a longtime litigator when he became a judge in 2004. Before that, Dietzen served as Pawlenty's campaign lawyer in 2002 and gave thousands of dollars to GOP campaigns, including Coleman's Senate races.
The court's remaining two justices -- Chief Justice ERIC MAGNUSON and Associate Justice G. BARRY ANDERSON -- recused themselves from this appeal and other recount cases because of their participation on the state Canvassing Board, which in January certified DFL challenger Al Franken's narrow lead.
KEVIN DUCHSCHERE
