Panel on Judicial Independence a success

Justice John Simonett '48 and 2006 recipient of the Fidelis Apparitor award.

From L to R:

• Minnesota State Senator and attorney Julianne Ortman
• Philip Kronebusch '81, CSB/SJU Professor of Political Science
• Michael Ford '70, Minnesota State Bar Association President
• Former Minnesota Governor Al Quie
• Anoka County District Court Judge Sharon Hall '76
• Karna Peters, chair of the MSBA Judiciary Committee
• Justice John Simonett

The McCarthy Center welcomes Julian Bond for the 2008 McCarthy Lecture

SCTimes: Panel at CSB to debate judicial selection

• Original story
• Event Information
  

By David Unze
dunze@stcloudtimes.com

The College of St. Benedict will host a panel discussion Tuesday on judicial independence and how Minnesota selects its judges.

John Simonett will chair the panel. Simonett is a St. John’s University graduate and former associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

It is an opportunity to educate the public about the state of judicial elections and the possible options for the future, said Matt Lindstrom, director of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement and associate professor of political science at St. Ben’s and St. John’s.

A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down Minnesota’s long-held canon prohibiting judicial candidates from stating their views on disputed legal or political issues.

That decision — Republican Party of Minnesota vs. White — allows candidates to claim political party affiliation.

Many see that as the first step toward the practice of outside influences raising huge sums of cash to challenge candidates with opposing political views.

While that has yet to happen in Minnesota on a large scale, many in the legal community are concerned it will.

That concern and what to do about it likely will be central to the discussion at St. Ben’s, Lindstrom said.

He hopes the panel conveys to those attending “not what to think, but what to think about,” he said.

Among the panelists scheduled to speak at the discussion are:

• Michael Ford, a St. John’s graduate, attorney at Quinlivan & Hughes and president of the Minnesota State Bar Association.
  
  
• Former Gov. Al Quie, chaired a commission that studied the issue of judicial elections and made recommendations for how they could be changed.
  
  
• Anoka County District Court Judge Sharon Hall, a St. Ben’s graduate who has served on the bench since 1993.
  
  
• Karna Peters, an attorney with Peters and Peters in Glenwood who is chair of the state bar association’s judiciary committee.
  
  
• State Sen. Julianne Ortman (R, Chanhassen), who is a member of the Senate’s judiciary committee.
  
  
• Philip Kronebusch, political science professor at St. Ben’s and St. John’s.

State Department Chief of Staff to speak on U.S. Foreign Policy

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Brian Gunderson, State Department chief of staff under Secretary Condoleezza Rice, speaks at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16 at the Alumni Lounge, Quad Building, Saint John’s University.

Gunderson speaks on “An Overview of U.S. Foreign Policy Today.”

A native of Minnesota, Gunderson became chief of staff under Rice on Jan. 28, 2005. He came to the State Department from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where he served as chief of staff to Robert Zoellick. In that capacity, he helped manage USTR as the agency completed free trade negotiations with 10 countries and launched negotiations with 12 others.

Before joining the Bush administration, Gunderson held many senior positions on Capitol Hill. He was chief of staff for House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas), and advised the Congressional leadership on foreign policy, defense and international economics. He played a key staff role in the passage of the 2001 and 2002 tax acts, trade promotion authority, China trade legislation, national security, appropriations and other legislation.

The event is sponsored by the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, in conjunction with Mark Kennedy’s Frontiers of Freedom Lecture Series and Students Fostering Conservative Thought at CSB and SJU. Kennedy, who served Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001-07, is a 1979 graduate of SJU.

Nick Coleman: McCarthy gaffe is like calling Kenneth Starr 'Ringo Starr'

Fame is fleeting, prophets are without honor in their own land and idiots rule.

During Tuesday's proceedings at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, a photograph of former Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy was shown during a roll call of the honored dead -- departed stalwarts of the Democratic persuasion who have gone to their rewards since the last convention, four years ago.

It would have made a nice moment. But they called him "Joseph McCarthy."

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