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480A.02 SELECTION OF JUDGES.
    Subdivision 1. Oath. Before entering upon the duties of office, each judge shall take and
subscribe an oath in the form prescribed by law for judicial officers.
    Subd. 2. Election. Each judge shall be elected at the general election for a term of six years,
beginning on the first Monday of the January next following the election and until a successor
qualifies. Vacancies occurring between general elections shall be filled by appointment, as
prescribed in the Constitution.
    Subd. 3. Eligibility. By January 1, 1984, one seat on the court shall be designated for each
congressional district. Only persons who have resided in that congressional district for at least one
year shall be eligible for election or appointment to that seat. A judge who is elected or appointed
to a congressional district seat shall continue to be eligible for that seat without regard to any
subsequent change of residence. All other seats shall be without restriction as to residence.
    Subd. 4. Statewide elections. All judges shall be subject to statewide election, whether they
serve in at-large or congressional district seats.
    Subd. 5. Designation of judges. After each reapportionment, the chief judge shall designate
a judge for each of the new congressional districts. The chief judge shall first redesignate the
incumbent judges serving for the old congressional districts. If only one of them was, at the time
of original election or appointment, resident at a place within a new congressional district, that
judge shall be designated as serving for that district. If two or more of them were residents at the
time of initial election or appointment in places which are within the same new congressional
district, the judge whose district was in the opinion of the chief judge most substantially related to
the new district shall be designated as serving for the new district and the other shall be designated
as serving at large. If there is then any new congressional district for which there is no designated
judge, but there is an incumbent at-large judge who was resident within that territory at the time
of initial election or appointment, that judge, or the senior of them, if there is more than one, shall
be assigned to the district seat. If there then remains any new congressional district for which
there is no designated judge, there shall be no judge designated to serve from that district until the
next at-large vacancy arising by death, retirement, resignation, or removal, which shall be filled
by appointment of a person from that congressional district.
    Subd. 6. Effect of redesignation. The redesignation of judges by reason of reapportionment
shall not affect the term of office of any individual judge.
    Subd. 7. Compensation; travel expenses. The salary of a judge of the Court of Appeals
shall be as provided by section 15A.082. Travel expenses shall be paid by the state in the same
manner and amount as provided for judges of the district court in section 484.54.
History: 1982 c 501 s 4; 1983 c 247 s 169; 1986 c 444; 1989 c 209 art 1 s 39

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes