Appeals court judge Christopher McDonald will become the first person of color ever to serve on the Iowa Supreme Court after Gov. Kim Reynolds picked him Wednesday to fill a high court vacancy.

"I know that, as the first minority or person of color appointed to the Supreme Court, people will have special expectations for me, in terms of leadership and mentorship, and I understand that. I appreciate that," McDonald said. "I embrace those expectations and I’ll certainly do my best to meet and exceed them."

Reynolds, a Republican, announced McDonald's appointment to the seven-member court Wednesday morning in her formal office in the Iowa Capitol.

"I am proud that Judge McDonald will now be continuing his distinguished career and bringing his diverse perspective to the Iowa Supreme Court," Reynolds said.

McDonald, who was born in Thailand during the Vietnam War and whose mother is Vietnamese, will be the first person of color to sit on the Iowa Supreme Court. He has served on the Iowa Court of Appeals since 2013 and, before that, worked as a district court judge and in private practice.

'I'm an immigrant's son'

McDonald, 44, spent his childhood on military bases around the world before his mother settled on the south side of Des Moines and raised him as a single parent. In his application, McDonald said he learned his work ethic from his mother.

As an undergraduate, he said he "worked full time as a civil law clerk in the Polk County Courthouse, attended classes at night, and then worked as a hotel janitor and cook/bartender on the weekends to save money for law school."

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"I'm an immigrant’s son," he said during an interview with the State Judicial Nominating Commission last year. "My parents were simple people. They were patriots and they believed in simple values: equality, freedom, justice and the rule of law."

In the interview, McDonald described how a decades-old police stop spurred his "deep concern" for racial justice issues.

He said he was stopped by police while driving with his mother when he was a young man sporting a haircut with cornrow braids. The officer approached McDonald with his gun drawn and shouted at him to get out of the vehicle. He said he believed McDonald was either assaulting or carjacking his mother.

"One, it was a scary moment, certainly," he said in the interview. "Two, it shaped the way I view police-citizen encounters, and I was certainly more sensitive to the needs or the realities, I guess, of these types of situations."

Governor praised his mentorship

Reynolds on Wednesday praised McDonald for his humility and his mentorship of young attorneys, "especially those from diverse backgrounds who have been historically underrepresented in the legal community."

McDonald is a member of several legal associations, including the conservative Federalist Society, the Iowa State Bar Association and the Polk County Bar Association. He has also served as chairman of the Iowa Asian Alliance. He was a registered Republican from 1998 to 2014, when he changed his voter registration to no party, according to the Polk County Auditor's Office.

He has an undergraduate degree from Grand View University and a law degree from the University of Iowa.

In an application to the governor's office, McDonald wrote that he believes there is a right solution or limited range of solutions to any legal question and that judges should look to the relevant sources, including the Constitution, laws, regulations and precedents to find legal meaning. He also wrote that "the rule of law recognizes and honors the constitutional separation of powers."

"I have a deep and long-standing commitment to upholding rule-of-law principles, the most important of which is an expression of personal and institutional humility in recognizing the limited role judges should have in the ordering of society," he wrote.

Reynolds chose McDonald over Chief District Court Judge Kellyann Lekar of Waterloo and District Court Judge Dustria Relph of Corydon.

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The three finalists were chosen last month from 19 candidates for the position by Iowa's State Judicial Nominating Commission.

McDonald will replace Justice Daryl Hecht, who left the seven-member court in December to focus on skin cancer treatment. He will face a retention election in 2020.

"To former Justice Daryl Hecht, thank you for your distinguished service to this state as a lawyer, as a judge and as a justice," McDonald said. "Please know that you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers, and I know that I have big shoes to fill."

McDonald is Reynolds' second appointment to the Iowa Supreme Court. Last year, she named Susan Christensen of Harlan to the court to replace retiring Justice Bruce Zager. Christensen is currently the only woman on the Supreme Court.

McDonald will begin serving on the Supreme Court in the next few weeks, he said, after he winds down his docket on the Court of Appeals. With his move to the Supreme Court, there will be two appeals court vacancies for Reynolds to fill.

Reynolds' appointment of McDonald comes as Republicans in the Iowa Legislature are discussing possible changes to the state's judicial nominating system.

Supporters of the changes say they would add accountability to the process, but opponents have warned the changes would inject politics into the system. A majority of Iowans say they favor keeping the current system.

Christopher McDonald