MN Supreme Court Justice is a Coleman Supporter-Donated to Campaign

[mod mom]

MN-Sen: State Supreme Court Justice is a Norm Coleman Donor and Should Recuse Himself
by Senate Guru, Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 03:51:46 AM EST

State Supreme Court Justice is a Norm Coleman Donor and Should Recuse Himself

Last week, I took a look at the political leanings of the five Minnesota Supreme Court Justices who will decide Republican Norm Coleman's likely appeal. Of one of the five Justices, Justice Christopher J. Dietzen, I suggested that he "has the clearest partisan background" of any of the Justices, pointing to facts including Dietzen serving as a campaign lawyer on Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's 2002 campaign. Of Dietzen's service on Republican Pawlenty's campaign, I sarcastically noted:

So, Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's campaign lawyer is one of the five judges that will decide Republican Norm Coleman's appeal. Nothing wrong with that.
Clearly, one of the Justices being active in Republican politics is sketchy, but I didn't go so far as to call for Justice Dietzen to recuse himself from any further cases before the state Supreme Court involving Norm Coleman and the Senate seat. Until now.

DownWithTyranny! took my analysis a little further and found out that Justice Dietzen is himself a two-time Norm Coleman donor! A simple search on OpenSecrets.org finds that Justice Dietzen has given to a number of Republican committees and candidates, including:

Contributor Occupation Date Amount Recipient
Chris Dietzen Larkin Hoffman 12/3/01 $250 Coleman, Norm (R)
Chris Dietzen Larkin Hoffman 1/21/04 $250 Coleman, Norm (R)
FYI, Larkin Hoffman is one of the law firms that Dietzen worked at before becoming a judge.
-snip

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/4/13/35146/9228

Linked to site from Huff Po

[elocs]

1. Check out this OP from DU on Friday:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8333140

I agree with the first poster who said: "The Minnesota Supreme Court is considered to be generally fair and nonpartisan."

I love to hear from posters who actually live in MN and who are intimately familiar with the case and their judges. Remember, the 3 judge panel who has heard this case consists of a Democrat, a Republican, and an independent and all of their rulings have been unanimous. I am not concerned about how the MN Supreme Court will rule on the Coleman/Franken case, but there is still plenty of hand wringing here at DU (there usually is about everything though).

[roody]

2. Is it going to the Minnesota Supreme Court?

Will he recuse himself?

[progressoid]

3. Why should he?

He can take a line from Scalia's book.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3975/is_200304/ai_n9221306/pg_2/

During the time Bush v. Gore was being litigated, Justice Scalia's son John worked at the law firm that represented the Bush campaign in the Florida courts, and Justice Scalia's son Eugene was a partner at the law firm that represented the Bush campaign in the Supreme Court...

[mod mom]

4. sigh...it's such a rigged system

:mad: