Attorneys of the Year: Erick Kaardal

By his own admission, Erick Kaardal has made a career of suing the government over a wide variety of topics.  His 2018 cases included what people can wear at voting booths and whether a state agency has a legal right to rename a famous lake.

“Over 20 years I’ve presented myself as a lawyer who will sue the government in every subject area,” said Kaardal, co-founder of Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson, P.A. “I’ve got 20 to 30 matters open against various governments at any given time. I’ve participated in about 150 appeals or so. I believe the type of cases I bring in court are as important or more important than any other type of case.”

The attorney, who has been active in the state Republican Party, has brought cases that won twice at the U.S. Supreme Court.  Most recently, in 2018, the court in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky decided against Minnesota election officials for prohibiting clothing with political messaging in polling places.

A pending 2018 case focuses on “unconstitutionally low” standards that the Minnesota Child Protective Services uses for placing children in foster care. The government does not require evidence of child abuse to remove a child from a family, Kaardal said, a measure that leads to substantially greater rates of foster care for Native American and African American children. “I may sound like a radical, but if the government is violating the law, I will sue the government because these are important cases for the courts that affect everyone,” he said.