Minnesota Lawyer Blog

Since (protest arrests aside) the Republican National Convention is occurring primarily in the political rather than the legal realm, we have not put much about it here. (I would suggest checking out two of our sister publications, the St. Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report and Politics in Minnesota, for local convention coverage.)

I will say that for selfish reasons I was disappointed to hear that John McCain had jilted the governor of our fair state at the vice-presidential altar.

If McCain should win the election, I have no doubt Tim Pawlenty's efforts will be amply rewarded with some high-falutin' post in D.C. So, despite media reports of some bruised feelings in how the VP-selection process played out, I suspect Pawlenty will quickly shake off the dust and go about the business of stumping for his candidate. Therefore, it's not for Pawlenty you should be shedding tears, but for Minnesota Lawyer, which has now lost a great potential hook to this exciting election -- the first Minnesota lawyer on a major party's presidential ticket in 24 years.

There are some striking similarities between Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Pawlenty. Both are governors who hail from Northern states, both like winter sports, both have sterling conservative credentials and both have last names that start with "P" (which apparently already has already caused some confusion). There are, of course, a few major differences (e.g. that pesky Y-chromosome Pawlenty carries).

There is another difference that interests me -- unlike Pawlenty, Palin is a nonlawyer. The choice creates a contrast between the competing party tickets. Both candidates on the Democratic presidential slate are lawyers, while both Republican candidates are not. Despite his lack of legal training, McCain can certainly hold his own in a debate. Palin remains a question mark at this point. It will be interesting to see what happens when she debates Joseph Biden, the formidable senator from the great state of Delaware who graduated from law school when Palin was 5. Going in as such an underdog could play to Palin's advantage. We will have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I would suggest that the lawyer candidates keep their distance from the current VP, who has a history of gunning for lawyers ...

Tim Pawlenty is, of course, a name being kicked around pretty prominently as a GOP choice for veep. The former Rider Bennett lawyer is on most short lists currently in circulation -- and the vote in Minnesota is tight enough in the polls where that selection might swing our great state one way or the other. I have no idea whether our governor will ultimately win the veepstakes -- and a part of me thinks that that the GOP might go with someone from another region -- but you never can tell. And the Republican National Convention is here this year ...

In any case, having a local lawyer's name batted around as a veep choice got me thinking -- can anyone tell me who the last lawyer vice president was? Dadadadadadada, dadadada ... da .. da. Sorry time's up. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? ...

Well, it's not Dick Cheney (although he did shoot a lawyer once). ... And it's not Al Gore, although some of you might have thought that it was. Gore is a former journalist who attended Vanderbilt University Law School from 1974-76, but never graduated. (He had a good reason for dropping out -- running for his father's old seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.)

No, I'm afraid the answer is Dan Quayle. That's right. Dan Quayle, a graduate of the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis (IU-Indy). That one really didn't work out all that well (although things may have been different if they had only taught how to spell "potato" as part of the law school curriculum ....). In the final analysis, Quayle may have gotten a bit of a raw deal from the media, but, that said, I don't think he'd be on anybody's short list for great vice presidents.

Faring much better was the last lawyer veep to serve prior to Quayle -- none other than Minnesota's own Walter Mondale. Mondale became a full-fledged advisor and a partner to President Jimmy Carter, in the process defining the role of the modern vice presidency. In fact, in one of history's little ironies, Mondale did much better with the veep job than his boss did with the top job.

So, we'd have to give a mixed review to lawyer vice presidents in the last three decades. How about a former professional wrestler instead? Kidding!

Conservative pundit David Brooks in today’s New York Times muses over possible vice-presidential picks and comes out strongly for John McCain to select Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty—a Minnesota lawyer, so he has a rightful place on our blog. Brooks says, “Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, is one of the G.O.P.’s leading and most likable modernizers. The son of a truck driver (his mother died when he was 16), he is the godfather of Sam’s Club conservatism, the effort to reconnect the party to the needs of the working class. Pawlenty could help McCain play the Theodore Roosevelt-style role — reforming the nation’s institutions to fit a new century and epoch.”

It’s ironic that Minnesota’s outgoing Supreme Court justice, Russell Anderson, has been so outspoken about his fears that an open election process would politicize the process of choosing judges when one considers how the process of choosing his replacement contains the potential to suggest political expediency, if not outright cronyism.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty goes back years with new chief justice Eric Magnuson; the two practiced together at Rider Bennett, worked together on Pawlenty’s gubernatorial campaigns, and by most accounts are good friends. Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with knowing the person you’re appointing to such a crucial position.

At the press conference to announce Magnuson’s appointment, Pawlenty, when asked about this issue, said, “Eric is intimately familiar with the court, so that doesn’t concern me.”

Fair enough. But what’s that old saying about even the appearance of impropriety being improper?

Unilaterally hoisting a longtime colleague with no experience on the bench directly to the high court’s top spot looks, at least to a lay observer, a little too convenient -- especially when the appointee was previously in charge of screening judicial candidates for the governor. Throw in the fact that Magnuson is Pawlenty’s fourth appointee to the high court, officially making it “his” court, and it’s hard to refrain from indulging in a bit of skepticism about the appointment process.

Magnuson’s credentials might be sound, but Minnesotans deserve some assurance that he was given the job based on his credentials alone, not his connections. It might be time for a formal screening process to accompany all high-level judicial appointments in Minnesota. Having the top candidates vetted by an independent commission -- even an ad hoc one for special cases like this -- would help lend some needed transparency to the process.

Magnuson comes across as remarkably informed and articulate on court-related topics. He’ll probably do a fine job. It’s too bad that the circumstances of his appointment seem perfectly aligned to invite scrutiny, deserved or otherwise.