Now in his fourth month on the job, Minnesota Chief Justice Eric Magnuson may still be a rookie as the CEO of the state's court system. But by speaking up early and vigorously about the need for more money for the courts from the 2009 Legislature, Magnuson is performing like a veteran, and a savvy one.

Last week, the new chief justice went public with a request from the Minnesota Judicial Council, which governs court administration, for an additional $54 million, a nearly 8 percent increase, in the coming biennium. That's the amount needed, Magnuson said, to stop the layoffs that have riddled court operations as a result of a $19 million funding shortfall this year.

About 9 percent of court support-staff positions have been eliminated or have gone unfilled. Those cuts have resulted in case processing delays, service window cuts, a reduction in juror payments from $20 to $10 per day and workload increases for all court personnel, including judges.

Those measures have been hard to take, but the courts are willing to live with them, the chief justice told the Star Tribune this week. They're asking for more money in the coming biennium not to restore the recent cuts, he said, but because they can't stand any more. The requested increase is needed to avert more layoffs while coping with an array of rapidly rising costs, from climbing case numbers (think bankruptcies and foreclosures) to higher transportation-expense reimbursement for jurors.

Magnuson went public with that request now, months ahead of the next Legislature's convening, because he knows he needs to sell lawmakers on a change in thinking as well as an increase in spending.

His case is this: The courts are not just another agency of state government, to be subject to the authority and vagaries of the governor and Legislature. The judiciary has separate third-branch status in the state Constitution, for good reason. It was clear in 1858, and should be still, that without functional, trusted courts to administer justice, settle disputes, enforce contracts and protect individual rights, an orderly democracy will not long survive.

"Underfunding the courts has far greater consequences to this state than underfunding an agency of state government," Magnuson argues. When courts function poorly, the credibility of all of government erodes. He's not exaggerating when he says "people's lives, liberty and happiness are on the line."

Minnesota has enjoyed the blessings of a respected, efficient court system for so long that it's easily taken for granted. But there is a limit to how much strain the system can bear. Minnesota judges handle on average 8,000 cases per year, compared with a national average of 5,000. Some of them are now operating without law clerks, coping, as did Anoka County Judge Sharon Hall recently, by spending her vacation doing the case preparation a clerk would ordinarily do. Said Magnuson: "It comes to the point where the hardest-working judge in the world isn't able to keep up."

Pawlenty and the Legislature will err if they take Magnuson to be just another in what will be a long line of pleaders for scarce state dollars next session. He's speaking out early to help them understand that the courts belong at the head of the line.