SOUTH BEND â Almost six months after first receiving a list of candidates to fill an open judicial position, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is finally allowed to appoint a replacement for recently retired Superior Court Judge Jane Woodward Miller.
Until Tuesday, Holcomb had been under a preliminary injunction, which prevented him from naming a replacement, as the result of a lawsuit filed by a member of the St. Joseph Superior Court Judicial Nominating Commission, the body tasked with nominating people to fill judicial vacancies.
The lawsuit, brought by Joseph Grabill, who is a member of the nominating commission, alleges two members of the commission were ineligible to serve when the body made its original recommendation to the governor in September and that the commission improperly considered the political affiliations of the candidates it interviewed.