Michelle MacDonald’s tilting at windmills

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Michelle MacDonald, the West St. Paul family law attorney and erstwhile Republican candidate for the Minnesota Supreme Court, got the bad news while on vacation in Aruba on the afternoon of March 3.

The bad news in question? A notification from the 8^th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that there would be no oral arguments in her appeal of the district court’s dismissal of the $330 million lawsuit MacDonald brought against Dakota County Judge David Knutson in connection with a messy child custody case.

MacDonald said she’d brought all her files with her in Aruba to sharpen her chops in advance of the March 10 hearing when she found out it was not to be.

“The way God works is that at the same time as I send out a press release, all of the sudden I get a phone call that there’s no oral arguments,” said MacDonald, who pronounced herself disappointed by the “mysterious” decision.

MacDonald said she’d invited a lot of friends, acquaintances and others “who have been wronged by family court” to attend oral arguments.

But MacDonald said there is one upside. While she won’t be arguing in front of the 8^th circuit, she said, “I got to do a brilliant brief…and got my word in.”

“However the judges rule, the next step is the U.S. Supreme Court,” she added.