Justice Myra Consetta Selby
(One hundred-third Justice)

Justice Selby was born July 1, 1955, in Bay City, Michigan.

She received a B.A. from Kalamazoo College, with honors, in 1977, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan in 1980. She practiced law in Washington, D.C. from 1980 to 1983.⁴⁷⁴ She specialized in health law in her practice at the Indianapolis law firm of Ice Miller Donadio & Ryan, and was Health Policy Director under Governor Evan Bayh.⁴⁷⁵ In 1995, she was appointed as a Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Givan. She represents several firsts for the Indiana Supreme Court. She is the first woman and the first African-American to serve on this court. The former quality required construction of a women’s restroom for the Indiana Supreme Court.⁴⁷⁶ She was also the first African-American partner in a major Indianapolis law firm, Ice Miller Donadio & Ryan.⁴⁷⁷ In her words, “It is always an achievement for there to be a first . . . the barriers can be broken down only when people feel comfortable with things they are unaccustomed to. The first is probably the least enviable position, but it is very important.”⁴⁷⁸ She hopes that “there will one day be no such thing as a first.”⁴⁷⁹

Source: Browning, Minde C., Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt. "Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices." Indiana Law Review: Vol. 30, No. 1, 1997. View this source in PDF format.