Law / Justice
Marge Anderson, tribal leader
Marge Anderson
Born: 1932
Occupation: Tribal leader
The chief Executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe was a leader in the successful nine-year court battle against the state of Minnesota over the right of eight bands to hunt and fish in and around Lake Mille Lacs free of state regulation. The case stemmed from an 1837 treaty. In addition to its specific impact on fishing rights, the case was a major symbolic vindication of the ability of American Indians to reassert long-overlooked treaty rights.
Harry Blackmun
Born: 1908
Died: 1999
Occupation: Jurist
Supreme Court Justice Blackmun was revered and reviled as the chief author of Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that gave constitutional protection to a woman's right to have an abortion. An obscure but well-liked and well-respected lawyer and judge in Minneapolis and Rochester before being appointed to the high court by President Richard Nixon, Blackmun was an associate justice, 1970-94.
Warren Burger
Born: 1907
Died: 1995
Occupation: Jurist
The longest-tenured Supreme Court Chief Justice of the 20th century (1969-86), the white-maned Burger seemed to personify the high court's conservative retrenchment during the Nixon era. But his voting record wasn't as conservative as his reputation suggests. Born and educated here, he left in 1953 to work in the Justice Department and judicial branch. Arguably, the highest-ranking Minnesotan ever in the national government.
Kathleen Graham
During the 1970s and 80s, when such cases were rare in Minnesota, Graham was a pioneer among attorneys filing class actions and individual cases on behalf of women who suffered workplace discrimination because of their gender. Her law firm used part of the proceeds from those cases to establish a fund to help women remove impediments to their workplace success.
During his last year in office, the long-serving attorney general (1983-99) delivered a litigation triumph that won him a spot on this list. While other attorneys general sought to settle their states' lawsuits against the tobacco industry, Humphrey pressed on to trial. He settled the state's portion of the case in 1998 for $6.1 billion. He now works to use that money to combat youth smoking.
A.M (Sandy) Keith
Born: 1928
Occupation: Chief Justice (retired), Minnesota Supreme Court
Keith is one of only a few Minnesotans to serve in all three branches of state government. he became the 18th chief justice a year after being named to the Supreme Court in 1989. A friend of Rudy Perpich, Keith later angered the governor when the court allowed Arne Carlson to run in the 1990 election after Republican nominee Jon Grunseth dropped out. Carlson defeated Perpich.
Alan Page
Born: 1945
Occupation: Associate justice, Minnesota Supreme Court
Page became the state Supreme Court's only black justice through tenacity and perseverance -- reflecting his Hall of Fame status as a former Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle. After suing then-Gov. Arne Carlson in 1992 to stop him from extending former Justice Lawrence Yetka's term, Page went on to win the general election. A former assistant attorney general, Page has become known as a jurist who reaches out to people.
Diana Murphy
Born: 1934
Occupation: Jurist
Murphy has zoomed through the ranks of judicial appointments. Appointed to the Hennepin County Municipal bench in 1976, when she was just two years out of law school, Murphy advanced to district judge (1978), federal judge (1980, first female federal judge in Minnesota), chief federal judge (1992, first female), Eight Circuit court of Appeals (1994, first female), and was chosen just last month to lead the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Rosalie Wahl
Born: 1924
Occupation: Associate justice (retired), Minnesota Supreme Court
Wahl has written her pages in Minnesota history with permanent ink. She was the first woman named to the state Supreme Court, in 1977. In 17 years on the court, she earned a national reputation for defending the rights of the poor and people of color. She decided to attend law school at age 38, she said, because "I was tired of sitting outside doors waiting for the men inside to make the decisions."
