Minnesota Lawyer Sidebar

May 26, 2015

Judge in trouble over residency, attorney faces suit over bungled immigration cases, and a law school’s survival is lamented

Panel seeks six month suspension for Anoka County judge The Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards wants Anoka County District Court Judge Alan F. Pendleton censured and suspended for six months for living outside of his district and using an outda[...]

May 22, 2015

‘Stop this Nonsense’

Just because your client is paranoid... Many lawyers say, you make money on the cases you don’t take. Above the Law has a post on “6 Warning Signs for When Not to Take a Client.” It’s a good list, and it does not include whether the cl[...]

May 20, 2015

Union asks Doty to hold NFL in contempt, Pedal Pub hate is back, and more law school woes

Union wants judge to slap NFL over Peterson discipline The NFL Players Association wants a federal judge in Minneapolis to hold the league and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, in contempt. The union filed the motion on Tuesday with U.S. Distric[...]

May 19, 2015

The effect of Iqbal and injudicious behavior in Wisconsin

Remember Jack Baker? The New York Times hasn't forgotten about Jack Baker even if the U.S. Supreme Court may have. It has a feature from Sunday's paper about Baker's marriage to Michael McConnell --they are still together and living in south Minne[...]

May 18, 2015

At the Capitol: Raises for judges and court staff, more public defenders, zero for jurors

Under a budget deal reached at the Capitol this weekend, judges and court employees across Minnesota get a 4 percent raise over each of the next two years, the Board of Public Defense gets an additional 36 public defenders, and jurors get the shaft[...]

May 15, 2015

Wisconsin court goes to court, and you may be (and probably are) an old codger

Court is “a disgraceful mess” Sidebar almost missed The New Yorker's May 5 piece on “The Destruction of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Wisconsin amended its constitution to allow the court to choose its own chief, and it wasn't Shirley Abraham[...]

May 13, 2015

Interview with the king of billboard lawyers, constitutional scholars needed in Wyoming legislature now, and a big feud on the big pond heads to federal court

It’s TSR Interview Time! At MinnPost, Burl Gilyard interviews the guy who designed those ubiquitous TSR Injury Law billboards. His identity? None other than TSR founder Steve Terry. Terry tells Gilyard the TSR didn’t bother hiring an agency[...]

May 12, 2015

Federal judge says mass incarceration is judiciary’s issue, and get some rest

NSA coverage and mass incarceration at How Appealing There’s no shortage of discussion about the NSA phone records program. Posts are available all over the place, but How Appealing is a good place to start. How Appealing also offers a link [...]

May 8, 2015

Three questions to mull over the weekend: Is John Roberts a closet liberal? Will another law school go belly up? Has Florida turned soft on crime?

Roberts sides with liberal wing on judicial campaign restrictions After Chief Justice John Roberts sided with SCOTUS’s liberal wing in a decision that upheld Florida’s prohibition on judges directly soliciting campaign contributions, USA Today[...]

May 6, 2015