 To
succeed Judge Dan
Eismann: Justice Eismann was raised in Owyhee County
and graduated in 1965 from Vallivue High School near Caldwell,
Idaho. He enrolled at the University of Idaho, and in 1967 he
left the University to enlist in the United States Army.
He served two consecutive tours of duty in Vietnam where, as a
crew chief/door gunner on a Huey gunship, he was awarded two
purple hearts for being wounded in combat and three medals for
heroism.
After being honorably discharged from the military, he returned
to the University of Idaho where he received his undergraduate
degree and then graduated cum laude from law school in 1976.
After practicing law for ten years, Justice Eismann was
appointed as the Magistrate Judge in Owyhee County. As a
magistrate judge, he was a member of the Region III Council for
Children and Youth; he helped create Children’s Voices, Inc., an
organization to recruit, train and oversee guardians ad litem to
represent the interests of neglected and abused children in
court proceedings; he organized and served upon a community
diversion board to handle outside the judicial system first-time
juvenile offenders who committed minor crimes; and he chaired
the Canyon County Juvenile Justice Task Force.
In 1995, Governor Batt appointed Justice Eismann as a district
judge in Ada County. Convinced that there must be a more
effective way to deal with the burgeoning drug problem, Justice
Eismann began working to set up a drug court in Ada County. In
1998 Ada County was awarded a federal grant, and in February
1999 the drug court began receiving participants. Justice
Eismann presided over that drug court until just prior to taking
office as a Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court. The Ada County
Drug Court is proving effective in getting addicts off drugs so
that they can restore their lives, rebuild their family
relationships, and become productive members of the community.
In 1998, the other district judges elected Justice Eismann as
the Administrative District Judge for the Fourth Judicial
District, consisting of Ada, Boise, Elmore, and Valley Counties.
While a district judge, he also served on the Ada County
Domestic Violence Task Force.
In 2000, the people of Idaho elected Justice Eismann to the
Idaho Supreme Court, where he began serving on January 2, 2001.
He also serves as chair of the statewide Drug Court and Mental
Health Court Coordinating Committee, and has served on and
chaired various other Supreme Court committees. He is a member
and past-president of the Boise Chapter of the Inns of Court and
currently serves on the boards of the Idaho State Bar Lawyers
Assistance Program, which provides assistance to lawyers with
substance abuse or mental health problems, and of the Idaho Law
Foundation. In 2007 he became co-chair of Idaho Partners Against
Domestic Violence. He served on the Criminal Justice Commission
created by Governor Kempthorne in 2005. On August 1, 2007,
Justice Eismann began serving as the Chief Justice of the Idaho
Supreme Court and completed his term on July 31, 2011. While he
was Chief Justice, he also served on the Board of Directors for
the Conference of Chief Justices. In 2009, he was inducted into
the National Association of Drug Court Professionals Stanley M.
Goldstein Hall of Fame.
In 1982, Justice Eismann married Sheila Wood, and they have
three adult children. |
