Minnesota Lawyer Blog

Speaking of the race for Justice Lorie Gildea's seat, high court candidate Jill Clark is in the news over at the Minnesota Independent, which reports on a case in which a client she represents has charged the Minneapolis City Attorney's Office with discrimination. ("Does Minneapolis City Attorney's Office discriminate against minorities for promotions?")

Clark represents Julie Delgado O'Neil, who has worked as an attorney in the office for 11 years. Delgado O'Neil, who is of Mexican decent, contends that people of color, including herself, have been unfairly passed over for promotions as a result of their ethnicity. (The Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights found probable cause that the City Attorney's screening process for internally promoting attorneys has a disparate impact on minorities.)

Interestingly (particularly given how few and far between judicial challenges are), Delgado O'Neil herself ran for a judgeship in 2004. She unsuccessfully challenged Judge Thor Anderson for a seat on the Hennepin County bench.

UPDATE: An astute reader points out that Delgado O'Neil also ran for the Hennepin County bench in 2002, and was defeated by the incumbent, Judge Lloyd Zimmerman. It's an interesting point given that Clark also ran for the Hennepin County bench in 2002, losing to the incumbent, Judge Thomas Wexler. In that heated campaign, Clark accused her opponent of demonstrating bias on the bench, a charge he vehemently denied.