photo by: Kahner Sampson

Judge Blake Glover is pictured with son Bryce at Glover's investiture ceremony on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.

It wasn’t quite a roast, but Judge Blake Glover’s colleagues got in a few good cracks – on the record, no less – at his investiture ceremony Friday afternoon.

Before the serious part of the swearing-in, Judge Amy Hanley and Judge Stacey Donovan – seeming to channel SNL duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, down to their hair color – lightly mocked Glover’s power-clashing wardrobe, his apparent addiction to sharing internet humor and his braggadocious behavior as a lifelong Jayhawk fan.

photo by: Kahner Sampson

Judge Amy Hanley and Judge Stacey Donovan pay affectionate tribute to colleague Judge Blake Glover at his investiture ceremony on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.

“He will put three different patterns together in one outfit in one day,” oblivious to critiques from his more conventionally clothed colleagues, Donovan told the packed courtroom. And if he sees a funny meme, he shares it “immediately,” she added with a hint of faux-annoyance (or possibly actual annoyance, it was hard to tell). He natters on constantly about his beloved Jayhawks, but when they get crushed on the football field by K-State, Hanley’s alma mater, he goes “surprisingly quiet.”

One other thing they just had to point out: He persists in mispronouncing the French term used in American courts for jury selection: voir dire.

“He may be able to do a killer jury selection, but he still pronounces it ‘voy dyer,'” they noted, drawing big laughs from the lawyer-filled gallery.

“You’re not in Texas anymore,” Donovan chided – a reference to his years in Dallas, where he attended Southern Methodist University’s law school, and to his six-year tenure in McKinney as an assistant district attorney.

photo by: Kahner Sampson

Judge Blake Glover is sworn in at his investiture ceremony on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. With him are wife Hailey and son Bryce.

photo by: Kahner Sampson

Judge Blake Glover is pictured at his investiture ceremony on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.

Before his Lone Star stint, Glover grew up in Baldwin City, to which he eventually returned to open his own law practice and to work as the city attorney. He was hired to be a pro tem judge in 2022, and earlier this year was appointed by Gov. Laura Kelly to replace Division 2 Judge Sally Pokorny, who retired in April.

Glover thanked Pokorny, who was present Friday with a number of retired judges, as well as new Kansas Supreme Court Justice Krishnan Jayaram.

Above all, he thanked his family, cautioning the crowd that he could get emotional.

He called his wife, Hailey, whom he met in his first year of law school, his “rock.” She stuck with him, he said, even when his ambition to be a “big-firm attorney” fell prey to his passion for the much lower-paying job of trial work, first as a prosecutor, then as a defense attorney.

He called out his brother Chad as his best friend – and fellow high school tennis phenom – and expressed gratitude to his parents for “instilling in me the work ethic that got me here.”

When it came time – after Chief Judge Mark Simpson swore him in – Glover’s son Bryce, whom he referred to as his touchstone of “sanity” after sometimes “insane” days in the courthouse – helped him into his robe. The two shared a warm hug, and then Glover made a beeline to his rightful place – “I’m going to the bench,” he quipped, abandoning the lectern where others had spoken.

photo by: Kahner Sampson

Judge Blake Glover takes the bench at his investiture ceremony on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.

photo by: Kahner Sampson

Judge Blake Glover is pictured at his investiture ceremony on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.

Looking out on the courtroom, he talked about what “an incredible honor” it was to have been selected by the governor to serve with what he called the best group of judges in the state and what a pleasure it was to work “in the community that shaped me.”

At the top of the ceremony, Simpson had described Glover as a sharp legal mind with the important judicial traits of humility, practicality and empathy, but it was perhaps Hanley and Donovan’s affectionate mockery of his humor, his quirks and his utter individuality that touched him the most.

“That is something I will remember forever,” he said.

photo by: Kahner Sampson

Former and current judges attend the investiture ceremony for Judge Blake Glover on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.

photo by: Kahner Sampson

Judge Amy Hanley displays a photo of Judge Blake Glover as a young man with his athletic trophies at his investiture ceremony on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.

photo by: Kahner Sampson

Judge Mark Simpson speaks at the investiture ceremony for Judge Blake Glover on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.