Donald Lay, chief Appeals Court judge and champion of individual civil rights

By Ben Cohen, Star Tribune

Last update: April 30, 2007 - 10:21 PM

Donald P. Lay, former chief judge of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and a champion of individual civil rights, died Sunday in North Oaks. Lay, who was appointed to the Eighth Circuit by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, was 80.

When Lay was appointed at age 39, the White House said he was the second-youngest ever named to the court.

His "dedicated service to the federal courts over the past 40 years have made him one of the brightest stars in the federal judiciary," said Senior Judge Myron Bright for the appellate court.

Some of the cases rooted in Minnesota that the court heard while Lay was a member were:

• Jenson vs. Eveleth Taconite Co., in which the company was found by the court in 1997 to have been liable for sex discrimination. The case was the subject of the 2005 movie "North Country."

• Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians vs. Minnesota in 1997, supporting the band's hunting and fishing rights, established by an 1837 treaty. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ruling.

• In 1983, an appeal of United States Jaycees vs. McClure. With Lay dissenting, the Eighth Circuit reversed the district court's ruling that women should be allowed full membership in the Jaycees. But the Supreme Court overturned the Eight Circuit ruling.

The district judge at the time of the Jaycees case was Diana Murphy, now an Eighth Circuit judge. "It had very far-reaching consequences for women working in business, and in associations that helped women in their business careers," she said.

When Lay joined the bench, a number of school busing cases came before the court from around the region. Retired Eighth Circuit Judge Gerald Heaney said that Lay was a "brilliant scholar" and a person "with a real heart. We made a lot of law in those cases in the 1960s and '70s."

Lay served as chief judge for the Eighth from 1980 to 1992.

Minneapolis lawyer Dan Oberdorfer, who once served as a law clerk in Lay's office, said that he was an "excellent, excellent teacher."

Lay earned his law degree from the University of Iowa in 1949. He was a trial lawyer in Omaha and Milwaukee before his appointment.

He taught law at the University of Minnesota and the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.

He left active service with the court in 1992, but served as a senior judge, helping to hear a case as late as November.

He is survived by his wife, Miriam, of North Oaks, and five daughters. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Arlington Hills United Methodist Church, 759 E. County Road B, Maplewood. Visitation will be 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, North Chapel of Holcomb-Henry-Boom Funeral Home, 515 Hwy. 96 W. at Mackubin Street, Shoreview.

Ben Cohen • bcohen@startribune.com

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