Following is a list of justices of the Idaho Supreme Court . Idaho was made a territory on March 4, 1863, and the first justices of the Territorial Supreme Court were appointed by President Abraham Lincoln. Following statehood in 1890, the state constitution provided for three justices. By an amendment in 1919, the number was increased and fixed at five, composed of a chief justice and four associate justices, which commenced in January 1921 and remains the present size of the court.
The first female justice on the court was Linda Copple Trout, she was first appointed in 1992 and later served as chief justice. Cathy Silak was appointed the following year and was elected to the court in 1994, being the first woman to be elected to Idaho Supreme Court (Trout ran unopposed in 1996). Silak served through 2000, suffering the only election defeat for an incumbent on the court since 1944. [1] [2] Following the retirement of Trout in 2007, the court was all-male until the election of Robyn Brody in November 2016. With the appointment of Colleen Zahn in 2021 and Cynthia Meyer in 2023, the court currently has a female majority.
Chief justices of the Idaho Territorial Court [3]
| Justice | Seat | Began | Ended | Chief Justice | Law School |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isaac Sullivan | 1 | 1891 | 1917 | CJ 1891–92; 1899–1900; 1905–06 1909–10 | |
| Joseph Huston | 2 | 1891 | 1901 | CJ 1893–94 | |
| John Morgan | 3 | 1891 | 1896 | CJ 1895–96 | |
| Ralph Quarles | 3 | 1897 | 1903 | CJ 1897–98 | |
| Charles Stockslager | 2 | 1901 | 1907 | CJ 1901–02 | |
| James Ailshie | 3 1 | 1903 1935 | 1914 1947 | CJ 1903–04; 1907–08; 1913–14; 1939–41; 1945–46 | Willamette University College of Law, 1891 |
| George Stewart | 2 | 1907 | 1914 | CJ 1911–12 | North Indiana Law School, 1881 |
| Warren Truitt | 3 | 1914 | 1915 | . | |
| Alfred Budge | 2 | 1914 | 1949 | CJ | University of Michigan Law School, 1890 |
| William Morgan | 3 | 1915 1933 | 1920 1942 | CJ 1919–20 | Georgetown University Law Center, 1899 |
| John Rice | 1 | 1917 | 1923 | CJ | Cornell Law School, 1890 |
| Robert Dunn | 3 | 1921 | 1925 | CJ 1924-1925 | University of Central Missouri, 1880 |
| Charles McCarthy | 4 | 1921 | 1925 | Harvard Law School, 1902 | |
| William A. Lee | 5 | 1921 | 1926 | CJ | Washington University School of Law, 1885 |
| William E. Lee | 1 | 1923 | 1930 | CJ 1926–29 | National University School of Law, 1906 |
| Raymond Givens | 4 | 1925 | 1955 | CJ 1930–31 | |
| Herman Taylor | 3 | 1925 | 1929 | University of Wisconsin Law School, 1902 | |
| T. Bailey Lee | 5 | 1926 | 1933 | CJ 1931–32 | University of North Carolina School of Law, 189x |
| Bertram Varian | 3 | 1929 | 1933 | ||
| William McNaughton | 1 | 1930 | 1931 | ||
| Robert Leeper | 1 | 1932 | 1932 | University of Idaho College of Law, 1913 | |
| Edwin Holden | 5 | 1933 | 1950 | CJ | |
| Nicodemus D. Wernette | 1 | 1933 | 1935 | University of Michigan, 1907 | |
| S. Ben Dunlap | 3 | 1942 | 1945 ^ | ||
| Bert Miller | 3 | 1945 | 1948 | Cumberland School of Law, 1902 | |
| Paul Hyatt | 1 | 1947 | 1949 | University of Idaho, 1927 | |
| James Porter | 2 | 1949 | 1959 | CJ | Drake University Law School, 1910 |
| William Keeton | 1 | 1949 | 1959 | CJ | University of Michigan, 1908 |
| Clarence Taylor | 3 | 1949 | 1969 | CJ | University of Idaho, 1919 |
| Darwin Thomas | 5 | 1950 | 1954 | University of Idaho, 1925 | |
| E. B. Smith | 5 | 1954 | 1968 | CJ 196x–63 | University of Idaho, 1919 |
| Donald Anderson | 4 | 1955 | 1956 | University of Idaho, 1927 | |
| Henry McQuade | 4 | 1956 | 1976 | CJ | University of Idaho, 1943 |
| Emery Knudson | 1 | 1959 | 1965 | CJ 1963–65 | University of Idaho, 1921 |
| Joseph McFadden | 2 | 1959 | 1982 | CJ | University of Idaho, 1940 (est.) |
| Clay Spear | 1 | 1966 | 1971 | University of Idaho, 1936 | |
| Charles Donaldson | 3 | 1969 | 1987 | CJ 1983–87 | University of Idaho, 1948 |
| Allan Shepard | 5 | 1969 | 1989 | CJ 1987–89 | University of Washington School of Law, 1951 |
| Robert Bakes | 1 | 1971 | 1993 | CJ 198x–83; 1989–93 | University of Idaho, 1956 |
| Stephen Bistline | 4 | 1976 | 1994 | University of Idaho, 1949 | |
| Robert Huntley | 2 | 1982 | 1989 | University of Idaho, 1959 | |
| Byron Johnson | 3 | 1988 | 1999 | Harvard University, 1962 | |
| Larry Boyle | 2 | 1989 | 1992 | University of Idaho, 1972 | |
| Charles McDevitt | 5 | 1989 | 1997 | CJ 1993–97 | University of Idaho, 1956 |
| Linda Copple Trout | 2 | 1992 | 2007 | CJ 1997–2004 | University of Idaho, 1977 |
| Cathy Silak | 1 | 1993 | 2000 ^ | UC Berkeley School of Law, 1976 | |
| Gerald Schroeder | 4 | 1995 | 2007 | CJ 2004–07 | Harvard University, 1964 |
| Jesse Walters | 5 | 1997 | 2003 | University of Idaho, 1963 | |
| Wayne Kidwell | 3 | 1999 | 2005 | University of Idaho, 1964 | |
| Dan Eismann | 1 | 2001 | 2017 | CJ 2007–11 | University of Idaho, 1976 |
| Roger Burdick | 5 | 2003 | 2021 | CJ 2011–15; 2017–20 | University of Idaho, 1974 |
| Jim Jones | 3 | 2005 | 2017 | CJ 2015–17 | Northwestern University School of Law, 1967 |
| Warren Jones | 4 | 2007 | 2017 | University of Chicago Law School, 1968 | |
| Joel Horton | 2 | 2007 | 2018 | University of Idaho, 1985 | |
| Robyn Brody | 3 | 2017 | Incumbent | Sturm College of Law, 1997 | |
| Richard Bevan | 1 | 2017 | Incumbent | CJ 2021–present | J. Reuben Clark Law School, 1987 |
| John Stegner | 4 | 2018 | 2023 | University of Idaho, 1982 | |
| Gregory Moeller | 2 | 2019 | Incumbent | Brigham Young University, 1990 | |
| Colleen Zahn | 5 | 2021 | Incumbent | University of Idaho, 2000 | |
| Cynthia Meyer | 4 | 2023 | Incumbent | S.J. Quinney College of Law, 1987 |
^ defeated in statewide election: Dunlap (1944), Silak (2000)
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