Journey to the Supreme Court from Greater Minnesota - to Boldly Go Where Few Have Gone Before

Journey to the Supreme Court from Greater Minnesota - to Boldly Go Where Few Have Gone Before
Mar 23, 2023
Gordon Moore
Journey to the Supreme Court from Greater Minnesota - to Boldly Go Where Few Have Gone Before

Gordon L. Moore III will be giving his classification talk. Gordon is an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. He was a judge of the Minnesota Fifth District Court in Nobles County from 2012 to 2020. He received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Carleton College in 1985 and his Juris Doctor, with honors, from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1988. Moore grew up in Rochester and graduated from Mayo High School. He lived in Minneapolis and Burnsville with his wife Jane Turpin Moore (Carleton '87) before they moved to Worthington to raise a family in 1995. Gordon and Jane are blessed with three children -- Gordy (28), Meredith (24) and Davis (22). His late maternal grandfather Earnest Sluggett was a lifetime Rotarian in Detroit, MI and Ormond Beach, Fla, where he often led the music on piano.

Prior to becoming a judge, Moore started his legal career in 1988 as a special assistant and assistant attorney general under Minnesota Attorney General Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III. After the move to Worthington, Moore was an associate attorney with the Worthington law office of Von Holtum, Malters & Shepherd, where he served as Worthington's assistant city attorney. In 2002, Moore was elected to the office of Nobles County attorney, and was reelected twice before Governor Mark Dayton appointed Moore to the Minnesota Fifth Judicial District Court in January 2012 to the seat vacated by Judge Jeffrey L. Flynn, who retired. On May 15, 2020, Governor Tim Walz appointed Moore to the Minnesota Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated by Justice David Lillehaug for health reasons.

While in Worthington, Moore's community service included serving on the District 518 school board, the Worthington Area YMCA board, and coaching youth sports, particularly soccer and ice hockey. Moore has avid interests in history, politics, music, education, Minnesota sports of all kinds, and venturing into radio broadcasting of legal issues and hockey games on KYMN.