[3] Following his term as treasurer, he subsequently served intermittently as Chief Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court first from 1929 to 1931, then from 1935 until his death in 1937.

[5] After establishing two separate practices of middling success in the late 1880s, Burke moved to the Dakota Territory poor in 1888 where he acquired work wherever he could before settling down in St. John in Rolette County.

In 1896, Burke unsuccessfully sought election to the United States House of Representatives for the Democratic Party, losing by 4,000 votes.

[8] Burke's campaign attracted wide bipartisan support, mostly those Republicans and other majority groups who had distaste for the incumbent Sarles administration, and the McKenzie political machine which had dominated the state for the previous 20 years.

In 1924, the firm was made defunct after Kardos was found guilty of criminally defrauding investors in a bucket shop scheme.

[13][14] To please investigators, Burke sold all of his property and gave up a large amount of his wealth before moving back to Fargo, North Dakota.

In the midst of his second term as chief justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court, Burke developed a pulmonary edema.