Inside chambers with Rush at the Indiana Statehouse

INDIANAPOLIS (WLFI) - She went from serving the residents of Tippecanoe County to serving Hoosiers all across the state.

"The job is fascinating," Indiana's newest Supreme Court Justice Loretta Rush said. "I mean, I look at the work I did on the juvenile court benches. It was challenging, complicated cases that involved people's lives and that's what I'm doing down here."

While the work is similar to what she did as a juvenile judge for 14 years in Tippecanoe County, Justice Loretta Rush said now, as Indiana's newest Supreme Court Justice, the workload is much larger.

"If the law is declared unconstitutional, that case will come directly to the Supreme Court," Justice Rush explained. "We get all death penalty cases and life without parole cases. So every day there is a variety."

Justice Rush said she credits the Tippecanoe County community for where she is today. However, Justice Rush said every day is a learning curve, and with those learning curves there have been some surprises.

"Probably one of the bigger surprises for me was that the new justice, which I am, has to vote first on all the cases," Justice Rush said. "I did not know that."

Justice Rush said the biggest challenge thus far is the preparation between cases.

"Every week I have probably half my body length in briefs to review so I can be ready for conference," Rush explained. "Also, reading and educating myself completely in areas of law that I hadn't had before."

Justice Rush laughed and said her day also starts much earlier. She still lives in Tippecanoe County and commutes to the Statehouse every day.

She adds that while the public may see her differently as a justice, she's still just "mom" to her four children.