Justice Scott P. Myren

Justice Scott P. Myren was appointed to the South Dakota Supreme Court by Gov. Kristi Noem and sworn in on Jan. 5, 2021. He represents the Supreme Court Fifth District, which consists of Brown, Butte, Campbell, Clark, Codington, Corson, Day, Deuel, Dewey, Edmunds, Faulk, Grant, Hamlin, Harding, Marshall, McPherson, Perkins, Potter, Roberts, Spink, Walworth and Ziebach counties.

Justice Myren grew up on his family farm in rural Campbell County and graduated from Mobridge High School in 1982. He received a bachelor of science degree, double majoring in history and political science from the University of South Dakota in 1985. He earned his juris doctor from Rutgers University in 1988, where he was the research editor of the Rutgers Law Journal. Justice Myren practiced law in Denver, Colo., before returning to South Dakota to work as a staff attorney for the South Dakota Supreme Court. He served as an administrative law judge for the Office of Administrative Hearings and magistrate judge for the Sixth Judicial Circuit. In 2003, he was appointed as a circuit court judge for the Fifth Judicial Circuit by Gov. Mike Rounds. He was re-elected to that position by the voters in 2006 and 2014. He served as judge for the Brown County Drug and DUI Court. Chief Justice David Gilbertson appointed him the presiding judge for the Fifth Judicial Circuit in 2014. 

Justice Myren served as chair of the Unified Judicial System’s Presiding Judges’ Council and president of the South Dakota Judges’ Association. He served on numerous committees, including the Court Improvement Program and Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, which he chaired. He was selected as a Judicial Fellow to the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource Center in Washington, D.C., in 2009. He served on Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s South Dakota Criminal Justice Initiative workgroup and Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Initiative workgroup. He supervised the rural and urban pilot programs, which led to the implementation of Hope Probation across South Dakota.