SUPREME COURT TROUT IS OFFICIALLY A JUSTICE LINDA COPPLE TROUT FORMALLY TAKES OATH

BOISE Linda Copple Trout has officially become the first woman on the Idaho Supreme Court.

The former 2nd District judge from Lewiston formally took the oath of office from Gov. Cecil Andrus during a ceremony Friday at the Supreme Court.

''She will bring sensitivity and understand ing of the law, a compassion that will only improve upon this distinguished court,'' Andrus said before administering the oath of office.

Trout, 40, was sworn in privately on Sept. 1 and already had been working with the high court, hearing oral arguments with the four other justices last week in eastern Idaho and this week in Boise.

''I'm extremely flattered and pleased and continue to be amazed at the honor that's been bestowed on me,'' she said, thanking Andrus for choosing her last month from among four Idaho Judicial Council nominees.

''I hope in the years to come to work very hard to justify that trust and confidence.''

Trout's uncle, Boise lawyer Robert Copple, said the new justice's mother and father, a longtime Boise pediatrician, would have been proud of her accomplishment. And he said like Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court, Trout would be a pioneer for future women justices.

''More will follow. There has to be more,'' Copple said. ''I'm sure Justice Bistline will tell you that when you vote on your cases, one does not beat four.''

Justice Stephen Bistline is well known in Idaho's legal community for his frequent, lengthy, often scathing dissents from majority opinions.

Trout also acknowledged the help of her husband, Lewiston attorney Kim J. Trout, her sister, a professor of medicine at the University of Arizona, and her colleagues on the bench in Lewiston, where she was a magistrate from 1983 until becoming a district judge in 1990. She also was trial court administrator for five years.

Kim Trout said he will move to Boise to be a partner in the Boise law firm of Meuleman, Miller, Strother & Cummings, specialists in construction and public works litigation. But he expects to remain at Lewiston for a couple of months to close out his law practice with Randall, Blake and Cox and sell their house.

A number of north central Idaho residents were on hand at the ceremony and reception, including two of the speakers, Michael E. McNichols of Lewiston, a partner in the law firm of Clements, Brown and McNichols, and former Lewiston lawyer and 2nd District Court Judge John H. Bengtson of Moscow.

In addition to being the first woman on the Idaho Supreme Court, Trout is the first Lewiston resident to serve on the high court since the 1950s, when Paul Hyatt was a justice for a few years. He resigned from the court, largely due to the illness of his wife, and returned to Lewiston and his practice.

Trout fills a position on the Supreme Court left by last spring's resignation of Larry Boyle, who became a federal magistrate.

Andrus said after Boyle's resignation that he wanted to appoint a woman to fill the vacancy, in part because there are some things ''men don't have the genes to judge.''

The governor was criticized by some both within and outside the legal community for his comments, but McNichols, a member of the Idaho Judicial Council, credited Andrus' encouragement with the fact that nine of 13 applicants for Boyle's position were women.

Chief Justice Robert Bakes thanked Andrus for appointing Trout, joking that the governor had ''solved our genetic problem.''

Bakes also said Trout's appointment brings the high court into what he considers a more favorable balance on another count: With Boyle, there had been three Pocatello High School graduates and two Boise High graduates on the court. With Trout, Boise High School has a 3-2 advantage.

''That's the kind of balance we worry about,'' he joked. ''The rest of you can worry about conservative, liberal; that's not our concern.''

Boise lawyer Lois Fletcher, secretary of the Idaho Women Lawyers Inc., said Trout's presence on the court would help ensure its opinions are more sensitive to women's concerns.

Trout's judicial character also may be influenced by her youth, said Sheldon Vincente, dean of the University of Idaho School of Law. She is about 15 years younger than her next youngest colleague.

''That brings a difference in perspective,'' he said. ''She learned law at a different time, practiced in a different setting.''