Ramsey County Law Library Blog

As warm weather settles in, people are predictably taking walks, riding bikes, and enjoying other outdoor public activities. Of course, nature will eventually call on people as they enjoy her summer gifts. So this blog entry is about public restrooms. Not about the correct number of women’s facilities to men’s, or about where baby changing tables should be located, or about which restroom a transgender person should use, but about the simple availability of public restrooms.

In short, public restrooms seem to be in short supply in the places and times they are needed, especially if they are locked during certain time spans. This can leave people with few or no options when they desperately need to use them. The Minnesota Legislature sort of recognized this problem when it passed the Restroom Access Act, which essentially requires retail establishments to allow customers access to employee restrooms provided they have an “eligible medical condition.” This doesn’t help the medically ineligible, plus it holds businesses responsible for meeting a basic human need. (Restaurants provide restrooms for customers, of course, but you might not need it until 30 minutes AFTER you ate their blistering curry.)

If you are out walking your dog, Fido might conveniently opt to relieve himself on the spot (backed up by your baggie please), but don’t be tempted to follow suit. In Minnesota, one who relieves oneself publicly can be charged under the state indecent exposure statute (MN Stat.§617.23). St. Paul also has a municipal ordinance against public urination. No numbers are available as to how many people are so charged under these laws, but it would be interesting to see if there is any relationship between the proximity of public restrooms and the cases that were fully charged.

Perhaps there is a relationship between limited public restroom availability and possible Fourth Amendment implications. The old Katz vs. US 389 US 347 (1967) case was about the expectation of privacy in an enclosed phone booth with a door. (…Public phone stations then evolved to be doorless.)  In State v. Bryant 177 N.W.2d 800 (1970), the Minnesota Supreme Court extended Katz and held that this expectation of privacy extends to public restrooms, so perhaps there is concern that public restrooms encourage criminal activity by creating constitutionally-protected privacy zones.   There is also the concern that public restrooms may encourage the congregation of homeless and transient people, with Denver being a good example of one municipality’s struggle with this real-life problem.  But the leaders there discovered that when they opted out of public restrooms and all of their perceived problems (including drug use and prostitution), they were faced with a new problem in that areas without restrooms predictably got turned into restrooms.

Concerned citizens wishing to see more public restrooms may simply have to pressure their own local leaders, but also be aware of the mission and activities of the American Restroom Association.

This week the Ramsey County Law Library joins with libraries all across the nation in celebrating National Library Week. A brainchild of the American Library Association (ALA), the purpose of this event is to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. After all, as the ALA’s Freedom to Read Statement begins, “[t]he freedom to read is essential to our democracy.” Our library is also committed to the principles set forth in the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights.

Our particular library serves the Second Judicial District Court, city and county officials, members of the local bar, and inhabitants of Ramsey County. It is covered under Minnesota Statute §134A, which governs the establishment and operations of county law libraries in Minnesota.  In particular, §134A.02 requires that “the use of the library shall be free to the judges of the state, state officials, judges of the district, municipal, county, and conciliation courts of the county, city and county officials, members of the bar, and inhabitants of the county.” (This contrasts to county law libraries in some other states, where access might be by paid subscription or only for local attorneys.) So when people ask if our library is open to the public, the answer is an unequivocal “yes.”

Best-selling author David Baldacci is serving as Honorary Chair of National Library Week. Visitors to the library this week can register to win one of three Balducci political thriller novels, plus pick up a free pocket Constitution or a word game.

The Pioneer Press recently featured the work of First Judicial District public defender Lauri Traub in defending Brian Fitch Sr.  Mr. Fitch was convicted earlier this month of first degree murder in the death of police officer Scott Patrick.  He was not a generally popular client, but Traub made clear that her team’s vigorous defense of Fitch was consistent with her belief that “everyone is entitled to representation.”  Fitch was asked by the judge if he had been satisfied with the representation Traub provided, to which he replied “[f]or sure.”

Our modern public defender system is the child of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, which held that indigent criminal defendants have a right to legal counsel under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In State v. Ferris, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that a public defender must be appointed if a defendant would experience “substantial hardship” to hire counsel. Minnesota Statute §611.17 requires courts to consider certain factors in determining a defendant’s eligibility for a public defender.  But Rule 5.04 (Minn. R. Crim. P.) states that “[t]he court must not appoint a district public defender if the defendant is financially able to retain private counsel but refuses to do so.” Further, the Minnesota Court of Appeals clarified in the case of State v. Nace that the right to a public defender does not mean the right to one’s choice of such.  For quick reference, the Minnesota House Research Department published a short synopsis of Minnesota’s Public Defender System, explaining who is eligible for this service.

As last weekend’s television debut of fictional lawyer “Jimmy McGill” dramatized, lawyers don’t typically earn much money from public defense cases. (Traub herself waits tables on the side.) At the same time, public defense is a limited and high-demand resource that gets spread painfully thin, perhaps unconstitutionally so. To consider this proposition, see this 2010 evaluation by the Minnesota State Auditor of the state’s public defender system. Here in the law library we also have Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People’s Justice by Karen Houppert (The New Press 2013).  This book articulately explains why our nationwide system of public defense is in disarray, and asserts that we still haven’t come close to meeting the promise of Gideon.

This skyway sign above 5th Street has since been removed.

The St. Paul skyway system has generated its own discussion among the downtown community in the last year, particularly after last year’s arrest incident. Debate over what human behavior was acceptable in the skyway system, versus when law enforcement efforts were going too far was predictable. The role of the skyway has generated even more attention lately, what with plummeting temperatures and the new stair access connecting the Metro Green Line Central Station to the skyway. Also noteworthy: The city is facing a lawsuit from last year’s skyway arrest.

Controversy surrounding the regulation of activity in the skyway is nothing new. Back in the early 1990s, the issues of skyway safety and police presence were frequently in the news. Reports of criminal incidents were frequent, as were charges of race-biased policing. Clearly those were stormy times for the skyway system, yet it also played a key role in downtown St. Paul’s preservation, and perhaps its recent renaissance. The now-active St. Paul Athletic Club once faced demolition, but its skyway role likely saved it from the wrecking ball. At one time the project of connecting the historic Union Depot to the skyway system by way of TPT was feared to be a “skyway to nowhere”– hard to imagine now that the Depot is an active and vital transportation hub.

As a publicly owned amenity, the St. Paul skyway is governed by St. Paul Ordinance 140. Some of the prohibited listed acts include (but are not limited to) littering, sitting on floors or steps, and playing audible music. Citizens can keep abreast of St. Paul skyway issues and express their opinions through the Skyway Governance Advisory Committee of the Capitol River Council. This is an advisory body to the City of Saint Paul and the City Council on issues and policies of the downtown Saint Paul skyway system “including but not limited to its design, signage, and hours of operation, in an effort to uphold the skyway system’s purpose to enable safe pedestrian traffic while also contributing to the economic viability and aesthetic and cultural enrichment of the city as a focus of activity in the downtown area.” Meetings are free and open to the public.

Now that the County plans to raze the buildings that housed the former West Publishing Company, it is time to look back at this local chapter in the history of legal research.  It’s easy to forget that many of the tools used by lawyers and librarians were developed right here in downtown St. Paul.

The instigator of all this was John Briggs West, a relatively uneducated man.  John came to Minnesota from Massachusetts in 1870 when his father, a bookkeeper, was transferred per his employment with the railroad.  Eighteen-year-old John soon found work for himself with a book company, which had him peddling books and office supplies to local lawyers.  These frontier lawyers (hoping to practice something better than frontier justice) complained to John about the difficulty in getting current legal information and other practical tools.  Seeing an opportunity, John quit his job and opened his own downtown St. Paul business in 1872, dedicated to serving the needs of the local bar.  His creations included a line of legal forms, reprints of hard-to-find treatises, and an index to the Minnesota statutes.  With his brother Horatio as his business partner, he soon began publishing a weekly report of the opinions handed down by the Minnesota Supreme Court.  This report was a huge hit, soon to be named the North Western Reporter.  Ten years later, John came up with a bold and original index scheme to catalog cases by subject matter that would later become the well-known key number system.  John left his company in 1899 and was largely forgotten thereafter.  Librarians will be interested to know that John spoke at the 1908 annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL).  He died in 1922 in Pasadena, CA.  The details of John Briggs West and his life are detailed in this article (whose author graciously allowed it to be referenced and linked for this blog).

See this other excellent article which illuminates little known facts of the past West Publishing Company itself.  Many don’t realize, for instance, that the company was responsible for Black’s Law Dictionary.  Also see the included appendix/brochure Law Books by the Million (West 1901) that detailed the day-to-day inner workings of the company at the turn of the previous century. Consider the fact that 5000-6000 sheep skins became the covers for the West Reporting System every month.  Take a minute to see the historic photos, for they speak volumes. (Proofreading at West was probably the epitome of employment opportunities for sharp young women back then.)  The best photos are of the buildings in their heyday, which locals can easily recognize.

One of the buildings marked for destruction became the site of the Ramsey County Jail after the company’s exodus up until 2003. Another was briefly home to the Ramsey County Law Library. It’s worth taking a walking tour of this part of downtown St. Paul to see these buildings while they still stand.   Waiting to see them on Lost Twin Cities 7 is not guaranteed, and won’t be quite the same as seeing them in person.