Justice Sarah Hennesy formally sworn in as the newest member of the Minnesota Supreme Court

At her formal investiture for the state’s highest court, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Sarah Hennesy said Thursday that the law was a light in the darkness for her.

Gov. Tim Walz appointed Hennesy this year to succeed Justice G. Barry Anderson, who stepped down before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 last October. Hennesy, who is Walz’s third appointee to the court, has served on the bench since mid-May.

At Thursday’s formal ceremony, family, judges and friends surrounded Hennesy as she took the oath and zipped up her black robe.

In her remarks, she talked about how she was planning to go to divinity school when a college mentor urged her to try law school so she could develop the cognitive skills needed to get out of a dark place. She found purpose, Hennesy said, but acknowledged the justice system isn’t a beacon for everyone.

“The reality is, the legal system is an institution that is built on a foundation of inequality by people who were themselves biased,” she said. “And despite the fact that we call it a justice system, far too often it is not just.”

Hennesy cited the disproportionate rates of incarceration of Black and Native American people, and bias against women. “When women tell their stories of abuse at the hands of men, too often they are not believed,” she said. “This is gender bias at its most invidious.”

The new justice, a former district judge whose district stretched from Stearns County to the North Dakota border, promised to continue to be a voice for greater Minnesota and trial judges.

“I understand firsthand how the weight of all that pain which finds its voice in your courtrooms settles in your chest and how sometimes you wake up at 2 o’clock in the morning and can’t get back to sleep,” she said.

Appeals Court Judge Theodora Gaïtas will join the state Supreme Court next Thursday, succeeding Justice Margaret Chutich, who will retire Wednesday.

In his brief comments, Walz spoke of the weight he feels choosing judges. Judges, he said, see people on their worst days when “all they want to do is be heard, all they want to do is be seen and tell their side of things and to feel there is a sense of justice.”