Ramsey County Law Library Blog

This photo of the bench and bar of Ramsey County from 1958 was donated to the Law Library by Tom Boyd.

On Monday, September 24, the Ramsey County Law Library and the Ramsey County Bar Association sponsored a CLE entitled Diversity in the Bar Association:  Then and Now.  The CLE featured four speakers: Thomas Boyd, Winthrop and Weinstine, PA;  Emeritus Professor Douglas Heidenreich, Mitchell Hamline College of Law; Paul Nelson, attorney, historian, and author; and Honorable Nicole Star, Second Judicial District.  Preregistration for the program indicated about 20 for this session, but many spur-of-the-moment attendees filled the north reading room.

The program started with Tom Boyd presenting to the law library a photograph of the membership of the Bench and Bar of Ramsey County from 1958.  The photograph was received by John Trojack, Chair of the Law Library Board of Trustees.

Mr. Boyd then went on to give a brief overview of diversity (and the lack thereof) in the early years of the Bar Association.

He was followed by Professor Heidenreich, who described how discrimination within the bar association started in the law schools.

Professor Heidenreich was followed by Mr. Nelson, who continued with brief biographies of four well-known African American attorneys in the early years of Minnesota. Frederick McGhee,  Charles Scrutchin, William R. Morris, and James Anderson.  (Note of interest, Mr. Nelson is the author of a book about Frederick McGhee, and if you would like to read it, both the Ramsey County Law Library and the Minnesota State Law Library have copies.)

The session concluded with Judge Starr speaking about her experiences, and she referenced the MSBA Diversity Strategic Plan as a resource for identifying ways to increase diversity and inclusiveness.

For a better look at the photo of the Bench and Bar presented by Tom Boyd, please visit the Ramsey County Law Library.

As President Trump interviews his short list of U. S. Supreme Court candidates, various media outlets inundate us with the political overtones and sneak previews of who might be nominated.  The notoriety and long-term significance of a Supreme Court Justice are historic in American government. Even George Washington, in his 1789 letter to John Jay (the first Chief Justice) stated “It is with singular pleasure that I address you as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, for which your commission is enclosed….and I have a full confidence that the love which you bear to our country, and a desire to promote the general happiness, will not suffer you to hesitate a moment to bring into action the talents, knowledge and integrity which are so necessary to be exercised at the head of that department which must be considered as the keystone of our political fabric.”

Minnesota has the distinction of having sent three notable men to the U.S. Supreme Court.  They are Pierce Butler (1923-1939), Warren Burger (1969-1986) and Harry Blackmun (1970-1994).  These three Justices also had ties to St. Paul and Ramsey County, according to  For the Record: 150 Years of Law & Lawyers in Minnesota (Minnesota State Bar Association, 1999):

Pierce Butler—although he was born in Dakota County, he moved in 1887 to St. Paul and joined a law firm before being elected Ramsey County attorney in 1893 and 1895.  He maintained a private practice in the law firm Butler, Mitchell, & Doherty. President Warren Harding nominated Butler to the Supreme Court in 1923.

Warren Burger—born in St. Paul, Burger attended the St. Paul College of Law and was admitted to the bar in 1931. He joined the St. Paul law firm of Boyesen, Otis, Brill & Faricy.  He was later appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals.  In 1969 Richard Nixon nominated Burger to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Harry Blackmun—Blackmun graduated from St. Paul’s Mechanic Arts High School and then attended Harvard.  In 1932 his first job out of law school was with Judge John Sanborn at the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals; Sanborn had been a Ramsey County judge in the early 1920s. Blackmun also served as an adjunct professor at the St. Paul College of Law.  President Richard Nixon nominated Blackmun to the Supreme Court in 1970.

The beginnings of Minnesota’s judicial system could hardly be more humble. In fact, its central player was anything but a respected legal figure.

Minnesota was established as a territory in 1849.  Prior to that time there were local justices of the peace in the area, who likely thought they handled local justice needs just fine, thank you.  But the day Minnesota’s territory status became official, President Zachary Taylor appointed David Cooper and Bradley Meeker as justices to the territorial supreme court, and Aaron Goodrich as its chief justice.  Goodrich’s selection was probably a return favor for the campaigning Goodrich had done to get Taylor elected.  Goodrich was a native of New York who later moved to Tennessee.  He likely would never have studied law, but the failure of his family’s bank in 1838 probably motivated him to complete his legal studies while in Tennessee.  He was one of the last members of the Whig Party, and was serving in the Tennessee Legislature when he was appointed to Minnesota’s territorial supreme court.

This ad hoc bench of three justices was predictably informal.  Minnesota territory had been split into three judicial districts, and each of the three justices served as the district judge for one of the districts.  Then, the three together would make up the higher court.  Goodrich presided over Minnesota’s first, or Stillwater district, with St. Paul’s Mazurka Hall serving as the “courthouse.”   This building left much to be desired, as litigants once needed umbrellas due to failure of the leaky roof to keep out a rainstorm.  Apparently Goodrich was also known to nurse a glass of liquor and a wad of tobacco as he presided over his court.  Meanwhile, American House in Saint Paul would serve as the first “judicial center” for the territorial supreme court, but the second and third terms were moved to the local Methodist Episcopal Church. (This interesting article about Goodrich reported that the local gossip was that Goodrich’s relationship with the landlady of American house was more than just business.)

Goodrich himself accomplished little to establish himself as a popular legal figure.  To start, he had been tasked by a commission to prepare a system of codified law for Minnesota, but he was not a fan of either law’s codification or its strict application. (Read his dissent in Dosnoyer v. Hereux 1 Minn. 17 (1950) to understand his frame of mind.)  The result was a loose collection of provisions, one stating that questions not otherwise answered in his written compilation should be resolved by the “ancient statutes.” There was also a general dissatisfaction with him among locals, and subsequent lobbying to have him removed.  Even territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey believed that Goodrich possessed “utter incapacity for his place.”   President Fillmore assumed the presidency in upon the death of Taylor in 1850, and removed Goodrich for what he referred to as his “incompetency and unfitness.”  Goodrich practiced law after his removal, but his most notable client, Souix Indian “Zu-ai-za,” would be convicted of murder and hanged in Minnesota’s first official execution.  He made few friends when he later wrote a book attacking the character and motives of popular historical explorer Christopher Columbus.  Goodrich was also a charter member of the Minnesota Historical Society, however, and one of the founders of Minnesota’s Republican party.

The fact that we expect a certain competence and decorum from our judicial officers may be more than just a craving for fancy formality.  It may have been partly the result of the relatively poor impression made by Minnesota’s first chief justice.  To learn more of this piece of Minnesota history, consider checking out Testimony: Remembering Minnesota’s Supreme Court Justices, written and published by the Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society.  Meanwhile you can read this excellent William Mitchel Law Review article.