Gov. John Hickenlooper has picked University of Colorado law professor Melissa Hart to fill an opening on the Colorado Supreme Court.
Hart will take the place of Allison Eid, who was appointed to Denver's federal appeals court by President Donald Trump. She filled the vacancy left by Neil Gorsuch, who stepped down after being nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hart was one of three women recommended for the job by the judicial nominating commission. Before joining the university, she was a trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department, worked at a Washington, D.C. law firm and served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
Hickenlooper says he is encouraged by Hart's ideas about how to make the judicial system "more effective, efficient and less expensive."
Hart is his fourth appointment to the seven-member state Supreme Court.
