District courtrooms across Minnesota seeing unprecedented influx of new judges

Minnesota's district courts have seen an unprecedented turnover in judges since Gov. Mark Dayton took office in 2011.

Because of a large number of vacancies from mandatory retirement at 70, or judges' desire to leave the bench earlier, the DFL governor has been able to appoint 76 judges. That's more than 25 percent of the 289 judges serving in the state's 10 judicial districts.

The new batch of judges, including those Dayton appointed to the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, appears to be far younger and more diverse than previous governors' selections. Statewide, Dayton says, he's increased racial diversity among judges by 53 percent and the number of female judges by 18 percent.

His unusual opportunity to put his stamp on the judiciary will continue over his next four-year term. By the time it's done, he is likely to have appointed more than 50 percent of the state's district court judges and the majority of the seven state Supreme Court justices.

"The number of appointments the governor had to make would have been on the very high end of historic numbers," said Lee Sheehy, chair of the state's Commission on Judicial Selection.

The landscape has benefits and drawbacks, some say.

"The good news is the new judges are very energetic, hardworking and excited to do the job. Such a large group makes them feel they are all in this together, and they bring different voices for a better formulation of justice overall," said Hennepin County District Chief Judge Peter Cahill. "On the other hand, we lost a lot of institutional history. If a new idea is suggested, they could tell you if it's been tried or failed before."

Around the same time, the state expanded the number of judgeships for district courts. Some of those judges retired early and became certified as senior judges, who are paid to fill in for vacancies until the governor names a permanent appointment. And some judges have found it lucrative to leave the bench to handle civil cases that require mandatory mediation or arbitration.

The governor appoints a judge for any vacancy. An election is then held for the judge's next term, which is six years. Elections are also held if no incumbent is running.

When a district court vacancy occurs, the commission evaluates applicants for the position and submits a list of three to five candidates to the governor, who is not bound to those recommendations.

The judge selection commission is made up of 49 members, about half of whom are appointed by the state Supreme Court and half by the governor.

A district court judge earns $121,712 a year; a chief judge earns slightly more.

Dayton has emphasized diversity in his judicial picks; his criteria have included race, gender, culture and area of practice. He has said he wants to recruit the best and brightest, and that the commission's already-established merit selection process has helped with that goal, Sheehy said. Diversity has increased 100 percent in Hennepin County, and Dayton appointed the first Hispanic appellate judge and the first black woman to the state Supreme Court.

Cahill said the latest appointees are fairly young, but one new judge in his district is 62. Each judge receives six weeks of training.

"The No. 1 remark you hear in court is how young the new judges are," said longtime defense attorney Fred Bruno. "Being young doesn't mean they aren't bright and capable. It's gone from judges being picked as a political favor to who is best qualified and gets the cases done."

Bruno and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi agree the state has an excellent selection system, but they also believe that most judges need about a year before they feel comfortable in the job. Bruno said he has seen a probation officer correct a judge who botched a sentence. He has sometimes found himself in a position to offer advice, which he does in the judge's private chambers. Most appreciate it, he said.

Unlike many smaller judicial districts, Hennepin County offers new judges the chance to get their feet wet handling misdemeanor cases and calendars for pretrial appearances and case issues. In rural districts, a freshly appointed judge may immediately have a juvenile or child protection case in the morning and a felony trial in the afternoon.

He and one other judge are assigned to the county, but Raupp said he had an advantage over other new judges because he dealt with a variety of cases as Benton County attorney.

"I hear from some of my colleagues in rural counties that the isolation can be kind of difficult," he said. "You can now e-mail a colleague, but it doesn't take the place of personal interaction."

Every case requires "brain work on the part of a judge," Raupp said, and he has a greater appreciation for the people going through the justice system and the attorneys who help them.

Hennepin County's Cahill, 55, has been a judge for nearly eight years. In that short time, he's already risen to 24th in seniority out of the 62 judges in the county, and joked that "I'm already a chief judge."

He sees both sides of the argument on mandatory retirement for judges. Some judges could still do their job well after 70, but others should step aside, he said.