MinnLawyer Blog

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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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. Wersal challenges [...]

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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. [...]

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Justice Paul Anderson is the second most senior of the seven Minnesota Supreme Court justices. He has served on the state high court since 1994. Previously, he was chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and, prior to that, an attorney in private practice. His challenger in the upcoming election is Tim Tingelstad, a [...]

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There’s an interesting article in the PiPress today involving the judicial race between Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea and her challenger, Hennepin County District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund. According to the press report, the owner of a sign-making company sent Hedlund an e-mail with the subject line, “Can Muslims Be Good Americans?” The [...]

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Hennepin County District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund’s statement on her Facebook page that her opponent, Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea, has canceled debate appearances with her six times is itself debatable, according to Gildea’s campaign. As we blogged before, Hedlund has an entry on her Facebook page asserting that Gildea is “trying to get [her] opponent [...]

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As we continue with our video election coverage of the state appellate court races, we present Hennepin County District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund, who is challenging Judge Lorie Skjerven Gildea for her seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court. Hedlund has spent the last 28 years on the trial court bench. Prior to being a judge, [...]

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Minnesota Lawyer this week presents its video coverage of the three appellate court races. We start today with the race between Supreme Court Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea and Hennepin County District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund. Gildea, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in late 2005, served briefly on the Hennepin [...]

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A lot has been written about the use of social-networking sites by lawyers. Now it has even permeated into the arena of judicial elections. Both Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea (right) and her opponent in the upcoming election, Hennepin County District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund (left), have entries on the Facebook networking site [...]

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Last Monday, in a chart accompanying a story on the appellate court races, Minnesota Lawyer reported the amounts of the contributions to the appellate court candidates in the upcoming election. There was an error in the information listed for Court of Appeals Judge Terri Stoneburner, who faces a challenge from International Falls attorney Dan Griffith. [...]

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