Associate Justice Hudson was appointed to the Court by Governor Mark Dayton on October 26, 2015 to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Associate Justice Alan Page on August 31, 2015 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Hudson was a resident of St. Paul, sitting Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge (2002-2015), former St. Paul City Attorney (1992-1994), and former Assistant Minnesota Attorney General (1994-2002). She was the first African-American woman to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court.
MacDonald was an attorney from Rosemount, former Hennepin County Conciliation Court Judge (1999-2014), and nominee for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 2014 and 2018.