MinnLawyer Blog

The Minnesota Supreme Court’s ruling on the absentee-ballot issue takes Minnesota nice to a new extreme. Rejected absentee ballots will be counted only if the county canvassing boards and both candidates all agree that the ballot was wrongfully rejected.
Now I may be going way out on a limb here, but in an election where a [...]

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One has to think that the action of the Illinois attorney general in asking the state’s highest court to grant a temporary restraining order preventing Rod Blagojevich from acting as governor is the legal equivalent of a Hail Mary pass.
Understandably not wanting to wait for the impeachment process to play out, the Illinois AG is [...]

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I spent a little time this weekend reading the briefs for a case on the U.S. Supreme Court’s docket next month. (I know, I know, it’s a gripping way to spend one’s off time, isn’t it?) Actually it was for a piece I was putting together for Supreme Court Preview, an excellent ABA publication that [...]

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Supreme Court candidate Jill Clark has served an Application to Circuit Justice for Injunction Preventing Unconstitutional Text on Election Ballot for Minnesota Supreme Court Pending Review by Supreme Court of the United States and presumably forwarded the same to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the circuit justice for the Eighth U.S. Circuit. She is [...]

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Jill Clark, candidate for a seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court, is planning to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of this week’s order denying her request to remove Justice Lorie Gildea’s name from the upcoming primary ballot.
Clark filed a “Motion to Suspend the Rules for Emergency Order on Petitioners’ Motion To Issue Writ of Mandamus [...]

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Speaking of the U.S. Supreme Court, I happened to catch a repeat of an interview with Justice Antonin Scalia discussing some of his thoughts while plugging his new book. At one point he was talking about the quality of the lawyers who come before the high court. He said there was generally a higher quality [...]

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Two local lawyers — Larry Purdy and Ryan Check — take issue with the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees in an opinion piece published in this week’s Minnesota Lawyer. (“‘Boumediene v. Bush’: Judicial arrogance writ large?“)
Here’s an excerpt from the commentary to give you a flavor of it:
Loosely [...]

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Would a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling lead to an increase of union-busting in Minnesota?
The decision, Chamber of Commerce of the United States et al. v. Brown et al., says that states may no longer restrict employers’ rights to communicate with their employees about unionization. The court found the state of California had wrongfully denied [...]

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It’s been an odd kind of news day. The chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is publicly busted for posting sexually explicit material on his personal website, and the U.S. Supreme Court finds that Guantanamo Bay detainees have rights. They say things happen in threes. Can’t wait to see what’s next [...]

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The “6o Minutes” interview with Antonin Scalia last night was worth watching. Scalia lived up to his reputation as being intelligent, stubborn and charming. Anyone who follows the U.S. Supreme Court knows that he is the justice who garners the most laughs from the people in the high court’s gallery with his witty, though sometimes [...]

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