Ramsey County Law Library Blog

As Women’s History Month begins this week, it is timely to consider women who have shaped our judicial district. Just as people have noted that our historic judge portrait collection contains no non-white members, it is equally true that the portraits are all of men without a woman in sight.

As a child, Mary Louise Klas had wanted to be a lawyer, but this ambition didn’t seem practical when she graduated from the College of St. Catherine in 1952. So she worked in various office jobs until she finally followed her instincts and enrolled at the William Mitchell College of Law, from which she graduated in 1960. She married her classmate Daniel Klas, and they went on to have five children and a successful joint practice of family law. It was this successful work-life balance that inspired a young mother that sat next to her at a political dinner in 1962 to enroll in law school herself. That young mother was none other than Rosalie Wahl.

Mary Louise Klas was appointed to the 2nd Judicial District bench in 1986, the first woman appointed to this position. Objectively, the appointment of a woman to this position may not in itself have been as historically significant as Judge Maxwell’s appointment. Betty Washburn had been sworn into Hennepin County Municipal Court back in 1950, and Susanne Sedgwick had been appointed to the 4th Judicial District (Hennepin) in 1974.  By 1986 Rosalie Wahl herself had been on the Minnesota Supreme Court for nine years.  (Additionally, there had been women on the Ramsey County bench before it formally became the Second Judicial District.)  Klas may be better known for her fierce advocacy against domestic violence. Once sworn into her new position, Klas “made it clear that she would be different kind of judge, criticizing police, prosecutors and the courts for not being tough enough on domestic violence.” She kept every word of that promise, which often pitted her against police chiefs, prosecutors, and her fellow judges along the way. At one time she was the issuing judge more than 90% of the orders for protection in Ramsey County. Judge Klas took all the cases that came before her very seriously, and as a result professed that “worries filled her mind [and] nightmares filled her nights.”

Klas retired from the bench in 2000, but not from passionate advocacy for domestic violence victims.  She has continued to be active in organizations including Guild Incorporated, ISAIAH Domestic Violence Task Force, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and Minnesota Program Development, Inc.

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ADDITIONAL SOURCES:

2 Named to Ramsey District Court – Star Tribune Sept. 26, 1986

Paul Gustafson, Judge, Activist Mary Klas Retires; She Used her Position – To Some Controversy – To Get Tougher on Domestic Violence in Ramsey County. Star Tribune July 3, 2000

Kate Parry, Judge Crusades Against Batterers – Law Enforcement Called Inadequate – Star Tribune Oct. 25, 1989

Phillip Pina, Judge to Leave Bench and its Moving Human Drama – St.Paul Pioneer Press June 26, 2000

Lori Sturdevant, Her Honor: Rosalie Wahl and the Minnesota Women’s Movement (MHSP 2014)

On more than one occasion, visitors to our library have noted that the judge portrait collection only contains portraits of white male judges. And they are correct.  While the portrait collection may be historically accurate for the time period it spans, it fails to reflect the more diverse bench serving the 2nd Judicial District that gradually came to be. It is fitting with Black History Month upon us to remember the first African-American judge to serve our district, even if his likeness doesn’t grace our walls. Indeed, he was the first African American District Court judge for the entire State of Minnesota.

Stephen L. Maxwell was born in 1921. His father, a barber, died when he was nine years old. He was raised by his mother, a social worker, and attended St. Paul Central High School. He put himself through Morehouse College in Atlanta and the St. Paul College of Law (now William Mitchell College of Law) by doing odd jobs along the way. During his schooling he also served in the U.S. Coast Guard as a lieutenant and commander and in the U.S. Navy, eventually earning his law degree in 1953.

He began his legal career in private practice in St. Paul. As legal counsel for the St. Paul NAACP in the 1950s, he won a substantial verdict for two black men who were refused service in a Dakota County bar. In 1959, Maxwell became an assistant Ramsey County attorney. He was a prosecutor in the highly publicized case of T. Eugene Thompson who in 1963 was convicted of arranging to have his wife killed. In 1964, Maxwell became St. Paul City Attorney, which he served until his appointment to the municipal court in 1967. He ran for Congress as a Republican in 1966 and garnered over 46% of the vote. He was appointed to the 2nd Judicial District bench in 1968, where he served nineteen years until he retired in 1987. He died on August 31, 2009.

Judge Maxwell appeared in a Navy ad that ran in Ebony Magazine in 1972

Judge Maxwell was remembered as a “tough but fair” judge.    He was featured in an advertisement for the Navy Reserves in the December 1972 issue of Ebony magazine, and predictably he ran a tight ship in presiding over his courtroom.   Active 2^nd District Judge Margaret “Peg” Marrinan remembers him as being “proper and timely,” but also possessing a uniquely subtle sense of humor.  More details about Judge Maxwell can be gleaned from his Pioneer Press and Star Tribune obituaries.  If you have favorite memories of Judge Maxwell, please feel free share them with us.