Margaret Brent Award Feature: Esther Tomljanovich

Hon. Esther Tomljanovich is a former Minnesota Supreme Court justice currently serving on the Board of Directors of Medica.  She graduated from St. Paul College of Law in 1955, the only woman in her class, and became the first woman to serve as the state revisor of statutes.  In 1977, Gov. Rudy Perpich appointed her as the second district court judge to serve in the state of Minnesota and was later elected as the first woman assistant chief judge in the state.  In 1990, Tomljanovich was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court, where she was part of the nation’s first female majority on a state’s high court.  During her years on the bench, she founded the Minnesota Women Lawyers Association and served as a member and chair of the Governor’s Judicial Selection Commission, where she called for appointments of women to the bench.  During her tenure, the number of women judges increased from 15 to 42.  She also supported women inmates in prisons and female defendants, speaking out for their dignity and family needs.

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