MinnLawyer Blog

I’ve always loved Halloween. I love to decorate my house with Halloween items, put pumpkins out on my doorstep, hang “Happy Halloween” signs on my doors and go to at least one super scary movie. As my co-workers will attest, I even like to put out Halloween stuff on at my desk at work — [...]

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John Dehen, who is running for District Court judge in Sherburne County against Robert Varco, is the subject of an order for protection in Carver County. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Mr. Dehen allegedly got in an argument with his 15-year-old daughter, Calen Dehen, while they were in a car, and that he shoved [...]

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Last night, Second District judicial candidates Gail Chang Bohr and Howard Orenstein faced off in the only public forum between the two prior to Tuesday’s election.

Given that the race is one of the tightest of any district court race in the state, the tone of the forum was cordial. But both candidates were determined to [...]

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It’s easy to forget sometimes that the conventional wisdom of the legal community is not always the conventional wisdom of the world in general. A case in point: Most in the legal community would acknowledge that appellate lawyers are best situated to know who is (and who is not) a good candidate for the Supreme [...]

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Last week we included a blog entry on a press release issued by the Thomas Haeg for Judge Committee concerning the $75,000 settlement of a discrimination and retaliation charge that had been filed against Hennepin County and Haeg’s opponent, Judge James Swenson, by a former Hennepin County referee. Haeg is challenging Swenson, chief judge of [...]

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Judicial elections are in the air.
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson and his challenger, Tim Tingelstad, were featured this morning in an MPR news report profiling their race. Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea and Hennepin District Court Justice Deborah Hedlund will both be guests on an MPR program today at 11:00 a.m. (See post below). And [...]

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Minnesota Public Radio will feature a radio discussion between Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea and the challenger for her seat, Hennepin County District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund, tomorrow (October 29) on “Midday With Gary Eichten.” The show starts at 11:00 a.m. on 91.1 FM.

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As we enter the home stretch of the judicial elections, a controversy that may influence the 2010 judicial elections is shaping up. U.S. District Court Judge Ann Montgomery heard cross-motions for summary judgment last week in the case Gregory Wersal v. Patrick Sexton, chair of the Minnesota Board of Judicial Standards, et al. [...]

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With the judicial elections a week from tomorrow, I thought I’d check in with former Minnesota State Bar Association president David Stowman, who chairs the MSBA committee overseeing judicial campaign conduct. Stowman confirmed my sense that things have been relatively quite and the candidates for the most part have steered away from politicizing their races.
“By [...]

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I think the future of our country is in good hands if the student body at the University of St. Catherine is any indication.
As the Star Tribune reports, a group of students at the all-female Catholic school in St. Paul is taking the administration to task for its well-meaning, but ultimately wrongheaded policy in banning [...]

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