Walz Appoints Chief Justice and Associate Justice to MN Supreme Court

[ST. PAUL, MN] – Governor Tim Walz today (Tuesday) announced the appointment of Justice Theodora Gaïtas to serve as chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Gaïtas will fill the vacancy that will occur upon the retirement of Chief Justice Natalie Hudson in September.

Governor Walz also announced the appointment of Judge Reynaldo Aligada, Jr. to serve as associate justice.

Aligada will fill the vacancy that will occur upon Justice Gaïtas’s elevation to chief justice.

Justice Gaïtas serves as a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. She is the only sitting justice to have experience serving on all three levels of the Minnesota Judicial Branch, as she previously served as a judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals and as a judge in the Fourth Judicial District.

Judge Aligada serves as a district court judge in Ramsey County. He previously worked in the Office of the Federal Defender, first as an assistant federal defender and then as a first assistant federal defender.