Minnesota Lawyer

Our review of issues in state and national news, with a rotating cast of political people in the know.

The GOP-led Senate Judiciary and Public Safety committee approved a skinnier budget package than the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform committee passed.

Following the slaying in Brooklyn Center of another Black man in police custody Sunday, Democratic lawmakers of color are demanding tough new police-accountability laws that, in 2021, the GOP-led Senate has held at bay.

The Minnesota Legal Services Coalition has received $3.5 million in federal CARES Act money through the state of Minnesota and will use it to finance its new Reach Justice Minnesota initiative, the group announced on April 7.

Charles Webber, a commercial trial and appellate lawyer and partner at Faegre Drinker, has been tapped as Judge Rex D. Stacey’s replacement on the 1st Judicial District Court bench.

The Senate Judiciary committee on Thursday unanimously adopted a major amendment to its budget omnibus judiciary/public safety bill that, among other things, closes that so-called “intoxication loophole” exposed by the Khalil decision.

The Commission on Judicial Selection has recommended three finalists for a spot on the Hennepin County District Court bench, which is opening with the retirement of Judge Thomas S. Fraser.

The House and Senate judiciary budgets for 2022-23 are quickly taking shape. Predictably, the DFL-led House is being just a bit more generous that the GOP’s Senate majority.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have resulted in fewer allegations of vulnerable adults being mistreated, the state Department of Human Services reported Tuesday.

After initially denying raises for judges, House Judiciary’s $1.086 billion biennial budget-and-policy omnibus was amended Wednesday to include a 3% salary hike requested for judges for 2023.