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Office of Gov. Dennis Daugaard
500 E. Capitol Ave.
Pierre, S.D. 57501
605-773-3212
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, November 25, 2014
CONTACT: Tony Venhuizen or Kelsey Pritchard at 605-773-3212
Gov. Daugaard To Appoint Judge Janine Kern To State
Supreme Court
PIERRE, S.D. – Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced today that he will appoint Janine M. Kern of Rapid City to the South Dakota Supreme Court. Kern is a circuit court judge in the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
“Janine Kern is a widely-respected judge and she will be a fine Supreme Court Justice,” said the Governor. “Judge Kern is known for her rigorous legal mind, her conscientious work ethic, and her commitment to fairness and equal justice under the law. I thank her for serving the people of South Dakota in this new role.”
Kern will be the 49th justice in the history of the South Dakota Supreme Court. She will succeed Justice John K. Konenkamp, who will retire at the end of December after twenty years on the Court.
“I am deeply grateful to Gov. Daugaard for entrusting me with this responsibility,” said Judge Kern. “I will do everything I can to live up to the high standards set by my friend and mentor, Justice John Konenkamp, who has served the people of this state so well. I am also grateful to my husband Greg Biegler for his support and sacrifices that have allowed me to pursue a demanding but fulfilling career.”
Kern, 53, is a Lake Andes native. She is a 1982 graduate of Arizona State University and earned her law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1985.
After law school, Kern worked for 11 years as an assistant attorney general in Pierre. During that time, she served in the appellate division, instituted the statewide drug prosecution program and directed the office’s litigation division.
In 1996, Governor Bill Janklow appointed Kern as a circuit judge in the Seventh Judicial Circuit. She has been re-elected without opposition in 1998, 2006 and 2014. Kern has sat on the Supreme Court as a temporary justice on numerous occasions.
Kern has served on the state advisory board of the Council of Juvenile Services, the Federal Advisory Committee in Juvenile Justice, the Division of Alcohol and Drugs advisory committee, and the Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee. She is a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Rapid City.
Kern’s father, Hon. Paul J. Kern of Lake Andes, served as a circuit court judge from 1975 to 1995, and was the presiding judge of the First Judicial Circuit from 1993 to 1995.
Like Justice Konenkamp, Kern will represent the First Supreme Court District, which is comprised of Custer, Lawrence, Meade and Pennington counties.
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