Credit Hour

Justice Meierhenry Discusses Life and Career on Credit Hour VERMILLION, S.D. – Former South Dakota Supreme Court Justice Judith Meierhenry, '66 B.A., ’68 M.A., ’77 J.D., discussed her life and career on the podcast Credit Hour.  “This year’s been hard. You don’t know things for sure. I think you have to live your life as well as you can wherever you are,” said Meierhenry. “Family first. If there’s anything I know for sure. It’s that.”Meierhenry was appointed the secretary of South Dakota’s Department of Labor by Gov. Bill Janklow in 1980 and served as the state’s Secretary of Education and Cultural Affairs in 1983. She was appointed a South Dakota Supreme Court Justice in 2002, becoming the first woman in South Dakota’s history to be appointed to the state Supreme Court, where she served until her retirement in 2011.“It was a good experience,” said Meierhenry of attending law school at USD. “There wasn’t another time before or since where you feel like you are learning so much. And there is a j