The people of Fort Dodge should take pride when one of their own rises to the top of their chosen profession and wins national prestige.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady is an outstanding example of that kind of achievement.

The Fort Dodge man was appointed to the bench as a district associate judge in 1983. From that time on, he has moved upward in the Iowa judiciary. He was named a district court judge in 1986. An appointment to the Iowa Court of Appeals followed in 1994, He became chief judge of the Court of Appeals in 1997, but he didn’t hold that post for long. That’s because he was named to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1998. He became its chief justice in 2010.

At the beginning of this month, he assumed the leadership of two national judicial organizations.

He is now the president of the Conference of Chief Justices and the chairman of the board for the National Center for State Courts.

”Chief Justice Cady has earned a national reputation as a leader who is dedicated to fairness, access and transparency in the justice system,” said Mary C. McQueen, the president of the National Center for State Courts.

We agree wholeheartedly with her.

Cady’s knowledge and even-handed approach to the law has propelled him to the forefront of America’s state judges and justices.

We believe the fact that an Iowan has achieved that is further evidence that the governor and legislature should not tinker with the way the state’s justices and judges are selected.

But now we join the nation’s legal community in saluting Cady and urge all Iowans to join us in doing so.