Pecker, Pili and Piercings
By Rochelle Olson
We’re starting with former President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial this Tuesday morning because former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is expected to explain the tabloid’s catch-and-kill approach to damaging stories. (No, we don’t do that at the Star Tribune.) What would we not give for a camera in that NYC courtroom? Opening statements were Monday with prosecutors saying Trump orchestated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election. The judge will also hear arguments about whether Trump violated a gag order over the weekend by talking about witnesses.
The Legislature is off again Tuesday for Passover so the Capitol may be quiet.
The big event Monday was the introduction of the state’s two new Supreme Court justices. I need to clarify (correct!) my irrational exuberance about the appointment of two women. Gov. Rudy Perpich made Minnesota the first state in the nation with a female majority on the bench in 1991. The distaff majority returned in 2016 when Gov. Mark Dayton named Justice Anne McKeig. The majority remained until last fall when Gov. Tim Walz named Justice Karl Procaccini.
And now incoming Justices Theodora “Teddie” Gaïtas and Sarah Hennesy will give women a 4-3 edge - not that decisions are made on the basis of gender. The Capitol rotunda announcement was, as usual, a gathering of legal glitterati (Retired federal Judge and former Justice Joan Ericksen aka mother of Walz staffer Claire Lancaster, David Lillehaug, Charles Nauen, Lee Sheehy). It’s always fun - for me at least - to interact with and see the justices in the wild, sans black robes and not sequestered behind the bench. They’re a relatively friendly and approachable contingent believe it or not.
It was evident that Walz had connected on many levels with both new justices. He knew Gaïtas because he’d put her on the Court of Appeals and he spoke about Hennesy as a judge who approached the world with care and curiosity. My story is here and please don’t miss colleague Jerry Holt’s evocative photos of the event.
Both women are bilingual and have lived overseas. The appointments received a modicum of national attention because both lawyers worked for years with low-income clients. Molly Coleman, executive director of the progressive People’s Parity Project, Harvard Law grad and daughter of former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and his wife, Connie, recognized the significance with a Tweet: “A legal aid attorney and a public defender are headed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.”
The editor of Bolts magazine called the appointments “incredible” and cited a two-year-old article about how rarely public defenders are appointed to state Supreme Courts. The editor also contrasted Walz’s appointments with what GOP Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is doing to public defense.
