By Seth Fleming
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS—This year’s general election will give voters the chance to say yea or nay to two judges on the ballot.
Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Robert Altice Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Slaughter are up for retention votes in November. In the last 46 years, the Indiana public has retained every Hoosier judge who has been up for a retention vote.
Altice, a former Marion Superior Court judge, was appointed to the Court of Appeals by then-Gov. Mike Pence and has been serving since September 2015.
His legal career began in Jackson County, Missouri, handling felony cases as a deputy prosecutor. He spent a few years in private practice before moving to Indianapolis and a position practicing insurance defense law for Wooden McLaughlin & Sterner.
In 1994, Altice became a deputy prosecutor in Marion County, focusing on felony cases. He became chief of the felony division in 1997. He was elected as a Marion Superior Court judge in 2000, hearing both criminal and civil cases, before his appointment to the appellate bench.
Altice attended Miami University of Ohio, earned a master’s degree from the University of Central Missouri, and obtained his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. He is married with two adult children. His wife, Kris, is general counsel for Shiel Sexton.
Slaughter, also appointed by Pence, has been on the state’s highest court since 2016.  A native of northwest Indiana, Slaughter graduated from Indiana University with a degree in economics, earned an M.B.A. in finance from the Kelley School of Business and his law degree from IU’s Maurer School of Law.
Slaughter spent two years as a law clerk in South Bend to an Indiana federal court judge and the worked in private practice with the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis, concentrating on antitrust, appellate, and other complex business litigation.
From 1995 to 2001, he served as special counsel to the Attorney General of Indiana. At the time of his appointment to the Supreme Court, he was a partner with Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Indianapolis and litigated complex business disputes in both state and federal courts.
Slaughter participate in the “We the People†program which educates high school students about the constitution, the nation’s founding fathers, and individuals rights. He has been participating in “We the People†since 1996.
To provide voters with more information about Altice and Slaughter, the state has made available a biography, oral argument video and decisions or opinions of each judge on the retention ballot at https://www.in.gov/judiciary/5398.htm.
FOOTNOTE: Seth Fleming is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
