Gov. Mark Dayton has received the names of three candidates to succeed retiring Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page.
The Commission on Judicial Selection on Monday recommended Margaret Chutich and Natalie Hudson, both judges on the state's Court of Appeals, and Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal. The panel is made up of members chosen by the governor and the state Supreme Court.
Page will be leaving the bench at the end of August after he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Dayton appointed Chutich to the appeals court in 2011, while Hudson was named by former Gov. Jesse Ventura in 2002. Segal has been Minneapolis city attorney since 2008.
Chutich also has served as assistant dean at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, deputy attorney general of the law enforcement section with the Minnesota attorney general's office, and assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota. After clerking for the Judge Diana Murphy in the U.S. District Court, she practiced with the law firms of Tanick & Heins and Opperman Heins & Paquin.
Hudson was an assistant attorney general for Minnesota in the criminal appeals and health licensing divisions. She also served as St. Paul city attorney and was the assistant dean of student affairs at the Hamline University School of Law.
Segal, in her role as Minneapolis city attorney, manages 65 attorneys. She was the chief civil deputy for then-Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar; owner of Susan Segal, PLLC, and a partner at Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty & Bennett.
Dayton is not bound by recommendations of the commission and could make an outside pick. Another rumored contender in political and legal circles is state Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson, who previously worked as a law professor and as an attorney in the public and private sector.
