Trailblazing GOP justice named 1st Black woman to Illinois Supreme Court
SPRINGFIELD — Appellate Justice Lisa Holder White has been appointed to succeed Illinois Supreme Court Justice Rita Garman, making Holder White the first Black woman to serve on the state’s high court.
“Being appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court is the honor of a lifetime. I am humbled by the confidence Justice Rita B. Garman and the entire Court have placed in me,” Holder White said in a news release. “My service to the judiciary for the past 21 years has helped prepare me for this historic moment. I look forward to the privilege of resolving matters my fellow citizens bring before the Court.”
Garman, 78, a Republican, announced Monday that she would retire from the bench effective July 7 after 21 years on the court and 48 years as a judge in Illinois. She was the first woman to be named judge in a downstate circuit and the first woman to serve on the 4th District Court of Appeals.
Because Garman’s official retirement will come after the primary on June 28, the Illinois Supreme Court had the constitutional authority to appoint her successor.
Holder White, 54, also a Republican, will be sworn in on July 8, which will roughly coincide with the swearing in of Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court during that court’s summer recess. Holder White’s term will expire Dec. 2, 2024, after a full-time replacement is chosen in the November 2024 elections.
A native of Decatur, Holder White earned a bachelor’s degree from Lewis University in Romeoville in 1990 and a law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law at Urbana-Champaign in 1993.
She began her career as an assistant state’s attorney in Macon County before going into private practice. She was named an associate judge in the 6th Judicial Circuit in 2001, making her the first Black judge in that circuit, and was appointed to be a circuit judge in 2008 to fill a retirement vacancy.
She was appointed to the 4th District Court of Appeals in 2013 to succeed the late Justice John T. McCullough, who died the previous October, making her the first Black judge in the appellate district. She was elected to that seat in 2014.