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Next Meeting: December 9, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. |
Minutes
MSBA Judiciary Committee
Meeting Summary
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
12:00 noon
Present: Karna Peters – Chair, Kevin Beck, Senator Don Betzold, Karen Cole, Daniel Cragg, Fred Finch, Steve Giacalone, Joseph Kelly, Jesse Kibort, Mike Unger, Mary Vasaly, Hon. Bruce Willis, Nancy Mischel-MSBA Staff. By phone: Mike Ford, Dana Mitchell, Mike Ryan. Guest: Judge George Perez.
ABA Standing Committee on the Judiciary—Standards for Judicial Disqualification: Since the feedback provided at the Committee’s last meeting, Judge Perez reported that the ABA’s Standing Committee has met and decided two things. (1) A process to handle disqualification issues separately from other motions is needed. This will likely take the form of a model rule or procedure which each state can then choose to enact or not. (2) More attention needs to be paid to peer review issues that have been raised. Judge Perez believes there will not be anything concrete coming from the Standing Committee until the spring.
Judicial Elections Coalition: MSBA leadership has spearheaded two meetings thus far of organizations interested in passing judicial election reform this session, leading to a ballot initiative in the fall of 2010. President Brisbois is hoping the Judiciary Committee can assist this effort in two ways: (1) updating the Committee’s educational materials to reflect support for the retention election bills from last session; (2) increasing the number of speaking engagements made to Rotary and other community groups on the topic and (3) assisting in contacting key legislators as appropriate. Senator Betzold emphasized the importance of talking to legislators now on this topic and not waiting until closer to session when their workload ramps up. Various members volunteered to contact some of the House representatives who sit on the Committees the retention elections bill must travel through. Ms. Peters suggested a conference call for new Committee members interested in assisting with this effort to get them up to speed on using the materials the Committee developed.
Judiciary Committee Public Speaking Materials: Mr. Giacalone and Mr. Cragg volunteered to help create a shorter version of the Committee’s powerpoint. Mr. Kibort and Mr. Beck volunteered to work with a subcommittee of the Judicial Elections Coalition that is identifying source data for information provided in various fact sheets. Ms. Cole volunteered to work on updating the Committee’s two-page handout for the public. Ms. Wolpert and Ms. Flom will also be asked to assist.
Next Meeting: Ms. Mischel will send an email announcing the next meeting date; it will likely be November 11 or 12.
MSBA Judiciary Committee
Meeting Summary
Wednesday, September 17, 2009
10:00 a.m.
Present: Karna Peters – Chair, Hon. Louise Bjorkman – Vice-Chair, Senator Don Betzold, Karen Cole, Fred Finch, Stacey Fujii, Ryan Kaess, Jesse Kibort, Mike Unger, Mary Vasaly, Hon. Bruce Willis, Nancy Mischel-MSBA Staff. By phone: Dyan Ebert, Mike Ford, Representative Steve Simon. Guests: Judge George Perez.
Caperton v. Massey Decision: Ms. Cole provided a summary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in this case. The issue at the Supreme Court level was whether a state Supreme Court Justice’s refusal to recuse himself from hearing a case, where one of the parties had made independent expenditures to organizations that made political contributions in his judicial election campaign, violated due process. In a 5-4 decision, the Court decided it did, even where actual bias on the part of the judge could not be proven. Chief Justice Roberts, in the dissent, pointed out 40 questions he thought were raised by ambiguities in the case.
ABA Standing Committee on the Judiciary—Standards for Judicial Disqualification: Judge Perez provided a brief summary of the draft resolution and report relating to standards for disqualification of judges, which is being prepared by the ABA Standing Committee on the Judiciary for the House of Delegates to consider at the ABA meeting in February. Judge Perez would like to take any suggestions/comments of members back to the Standing Committee for their October 15 meeting. The resolution provides various recommendations for improving judicial disqualification standards, practices and procedures among the States, in order to improve those standards and promote public confidence in the Courts. The Standing Committee was concerned with the appearance of bias to the public, not whether there actually is bias.
Members spent some time discussing the resolution and report. The members discussed the availability of preemptory challenges in Minnesota (an option recommended in the report), both pros and cons, and the difficulty that this and other methods of qualification can sometimes cause in rural areas, where there are fewer judges. In the report, the terms “party” and litigant” seemed to be used interchangeably. Members advised using the term “litigant” for consistency and to avoid any confusion that the word “party” might refer to political parties.
The question was raised whether the MSBA as a whole should adopt a resolution supporting the ABA Committee’s report. Judge Perez agreed to return to our Judiciary Committee after October 15 to provide an update and the Committee can decide at that time whether to make a recommendation to the Assembly.
Outlook for Legislation in 2010: Senator Betzold noted that the retention election bill (authored by Senator Ann Rest and co-authored by Sen. Betzold) made it through two policy committees in the Senate last year. He believes the bill ended up in the Rules Committee, which is a necessary stop for bills involving a constitutional ballot question. Representative Simon indicated that he met with House leadership recently about the retention election bill, which he authored in the House. The House bill was not heard in any Committees last year. Rep. Simon plans to make some changes to the bill; a stumbling block last year was the $500,00 fiscal note attached to the bill.
Next Meeting: The Committee will meet next over the noon hour on a date TBD in the latter half of October.
- Last Updated 11/16/09 -