Name: Don’t forget the Minnesota Supreme Court race on the back of the ballot. Here’s who’s running.
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Don’t forget the Minnesota Supreme Court race on the back of the ballot. Here’s who’s running.

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By | | Pioneer PressAs President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are the big attraction atop the 2020 election ballot, two candidates are running in a race you may not have heard of for a seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court. You’ll have to flip over your ballot to even find the contest.Supreme Court Associate Justice Paul Thissen is being challenged for his seat by perennial candidate Michelle MacDonald, who is making her fourth bid for the court that has disciplined her in the past over professional conduct.Is that news to you? If so, you’re not alone. Many people haven’t heard of them.Why not? For one thing, Thissen and MacDonald aren’t posting viral tweets, airing TV attack ads or making many headlines.The race is non-partisan, so the Democratic and Republican parties aren’t campaigning for the candidates. And the Minnesota Code of Judicial Standards bars judicial candidates from telling you where they stand on issues like abortion, gun control, legalizing marijuana and other current topics.The code also restricts how those candidates can raise money for their campaigns, so in general they spend far less than candidates for other state offices.Nonetheless, Thissen has raised and spent more money on his campaign — $153,858 as of Sept. 15 — than most previous justices. By contrast, MacDonald had spent just $4,552 on her political operation. Thissen also has maintained a heavy travel schedule, campaigning in person across the state.Sitting state Supreme Court justices rarely lose elections, so why is Thissen, 53, of Minneapolis waging such an active campaign?“I see campaigning as a really good opportunity to get out and talk to Minnesotans, to educate them about what our courts do and why it’s important that people to exercise the power… to vote for judges,” he said in an interview.He’s a seasoned campaigner. He was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2002, served there for 16 years and became speaker of the House in 2013, a post he held until 2015. He also made two brief runs for the DFL nomination for governor in 2010 and 2018. Two months after he dropped out of the latter race, Gov. Mark Dayton appointed him to the Supreme Court.Almost all Supreme Court justices are appointed to the bench after a sitting justice retires or dies. The appointed justice must stand for election in the first statewide general election after he or she was seated and then run for re-election after serving each six-year term. The current court consists of five justices appointed by Democratic governors and two by a Republican.“One of the great things about our court is the seven of us… decide about three-fourths of our cases unanimously, even though we come from diverse backgrounds and we’re appointed by governors of different parties,” Thissen said.Thissen views his legislative experience is an asset on the court. First, it helps him to understand what lawmakers meant to do when they passed a law that the court is considering.But the “greatest gift” he received as a legislator, he said, was the opportunity to travel throughout Minnesota.“One of your jobs as a judge is to step into the shoes of the litigant, to hear their views from their perspective,” he said. “Having traveled to all 87 counties and talked to thousands and thousands of people, I think that experience… helps me do that part of the job.”Thissen said the main reason he wants a full, six-year term on the court is “my passion for access to justice… making sure everyone’s voice is heard and everyone’s rights are protected.” He wants to provide legal representation for everyone regardless of income, work for racial and gender equity in the legal system, hold the powerful accountable and make sure laws preserve our democracy.Born in Bloomington and a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School, he practiced law for 25 years, serving as a public defender, handling complex litigation for large and small businesses and providing pro bono services for low-income clients.Thissen said he’s taking the contest seriously because of MacDonald’s vote-getting prowess. She received 47 percent of the vote in her 2014 challenge of Justice David Lillehaug, 41 percent in 2016 against Justice Natalie Hudson and 44 percent in 2018 against Justice Margaret Churtich.MacDonald, 58, is the owner and managing attorney a law firm in West St. Paul, where she specializes in family law. She also is the founder and president of Family Innocence, a nonprofit dedicated to helping families resolve disputes without going to court. A graduate of Boston College and Suffolk University Law School, she has practiced law for 33 years and served as a family court referee and small claims court judge in Hennepin County.She is running for the Supreme Court again this year, she said, to “stop the corruption, the legal tyranny which happens with law enforcement, lawyers, prosecutors and judges… The system is corrupt to the core.”MacDonald said judges are often oppressive, and the court system imposes burdensome rules and exorbitant costs on citizens who use it. “Court orders are taking away our liberty rights with our property and our children,” she said.As an associate justice, she said she would hold lower court judges “accountable to the rule of law, the constitution and the people.” That, she asserted, would reduce the need for expensive appeals.She also would advocate for more use of “restorative justice” practices in which parties try to resolve disputes themselves without going to court “unless there’s domestic abuse or some other harm that requires a judge’s intervention.”Her ultimate goal is to create a justice system that is free to citizens.MacDonald has been embroiled in legal controversies of her own in recent years. In 2014, she was acquitted of a drunken driving charge but later convicted of a misdemeanor for obstruction of a legal process.In 2018, the Minnesota Supreme Court suspended her law license for 60 days and placed her on two years’ probation after the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board alleged she acted unprofessionally in a Dakota County District Court case and made false statements about the integrity of the judge.MacDonald said she was disciplined for suing the judge for civil rights violations and “speaking out against corruption.”On Tuesday, a court-appointed referee recommended to the Supreme Court that she be placed on probation for a year for causing “harm to both the public and legal profession.” MacDonald said she again is facing punishment for exercising her right to criticize a judge.Although Thissen didn’t comment on MacDonald’s record, he said voters “want people sitting on the court to have high professional and ethical standards, and I think that’s a very distinct contrast with my opponent.MacDonald said her candidacy offers Minnesotans a chance to vote for fundamental judicial reform, while Thissen represents “business as usual.”The two candidates face one challenge in common: Getting voters to turn over their ballots and vote for a Supreme Court justice. In the last presidential election year in 2016, 768,000 fewer votes, or 26 percent, were cast for Supreme Court justice than for president. In 2018, the drop off between those two races was 27 percent.For more information on the candidates, read their answers to the Minnesota State Bar Association’s questionnaires at .We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.Sign up for Newsletters and AlertsFollow UsMost PopularClose

By | | Pioneer PressAs President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are the big attraction atop the 2020 election ballot, two candidates are running in a race you may not have heard of for a seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court. You’ll have to flip over your ballot to even find the contest.Supreme Court Associate Justice Paul Thissen is being challenged for his seat by perennial candidate Michelle MacDonald, who is making her fourth bid for the court that has disciplined her in the past over professional conduct.Is that news to you? If so, you’re not alone. Many people haven’t...

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Don’t forget the Minnesota Supreme Court race on the back of the ballot. Here’s who’s running.

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