INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission voted Tuesday to make Brent Dickson the state's first new chief justice in 25 years.
Dickson, 70, is the longest-serving current member of the five-member Supreme Court and has been the acting chief justice since Randall Shepard retired in March.
Three of the other four justices told the commission that they supported Dickson becoming the chief justice.
Dickson will be leading a court in transition since it is expected this fall to get its third new justice in less than two years after no turnover for more than a decade.
Justice Robert Rucker said the court needed some stability with so much change.
"It's my view that with so much uncertainty ... Justice Dickson as acting chief justice has been that steady hand," Rucker said.
Dickson, who grew up in northwestern Indiana's Hobart, was an attorney in Lafayette when Gov. Robert Orr appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1986.
The chief justice's term is five years, but Dickson will reach the court's retirement age of 75 before that period expires.
Dickson is one of three current justices who were appointed by Republican governors.
Justice Frank Sullivan, who was appointed in 1993 by Democratic Gov. Evan Bayh, plans to retire this summer to take a teaching job at Indiana University's McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.
His replacement will be the third justice to be appointed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, leaving Rucker as the only Democratic appointee on the court.
Some court observers had expected Dickson to be selected as chief justice.
Joel Schumm, a professor at the McKinney School of Law, said Monday that picking Dickson would give the newer justices time to gain some experience on the bench.
Daniels appointed then-Boone County Judge Steven David to the court in 2010. Daniels picked Mark Massa, his former chief counsel in the governor's office, in March to fill the vacancy from Shepard's retirement.
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