After more than two decades as an appellate judge, Associate Justice Paul Anderson of the Minnesota Supreme Court will retire at the end of May when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.
“These 20-plus years are the best years of my life so far,” Anderson of Inver Grove Heights said Friday, Jan. 4.
“What a privilege it has been to hold public office in a state like Minnesota. What a gift,” he said.
He has played key roles in both reforming the state’s judicial system and preserving its restrained course.
“I’m a moderate, a centrist. I always have been,” he said. “The court has shifted a little bit around me, but to be part of maintaining a centrist, slightly populist-progressive approach to government that has been so much in the tradition of the state of Minnesota, that’s a real privilege.”
Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday announced he has launched a process for filling Anderson’s seat on the high court. He asked his Commission on Judicial Selection to screen applicants and recommend candidates to him. The deadline for applying is Feb. 15.
Gov. Arne Carlson appointed Anderson to the Supreme Court in 1994 after he had served two years as chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
He had been a partner at the LeVander, Gillen & Miller law firm in South St. Paul from 1971 to 1992. Before that, he was an assistant state attorney general for two years.
An Eden Prairie native, Anderson earned his bachelor’s degree from Macalester College and a law degree from the University of Minnesota. He is a former president of the Dakota County Bar Association and board member and chairman of the Inver Grove Heights School Board.
He played a key role in one of the most turbulent gubernatorial elections in state history in 1990, when he chaired Carlson’s campaign committee. Jon Grunseth beat Carlson in the Republican primary that year, but the nominee was forced to quit the race nine days before Election Day because of a sex scandal. With Anderson’s legal help, Carlson replaced him on the ballot and unseated DFL Gov. Rudy Perpich.
“To have a role in that flat-out unique election that led to the election of one of our better governors … wow! Pretty good,” he said.
He was thrust onto the national and international political stage by sitting on the court when it heard the 2008 U.S. Senate election recount between Al Franken and Norm Coleman and the 2010 governor’s recount between Dayton and Tom Emmer. As a result of those cases, he served on a national commission on election security and consulted on election laws in the Philippines, Libya and Tunisia.
One of the most satisfying aspects of this term on the bench, he said, was “being in a position to interpret and implement the protections of the (U.S.) Constitution, particularly the Fourth Amendment,” which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Equally gratifying, he said, has been “being in a position to make people feel good just by treating them nicely.”
Outside the courtroom, Anderson has devoted considerable time to civics education, particularly teaching young people how government works. “I am so grateful to live in a society governed by the rule of law, where you can implement a form of democratic government,” he said.
Anderson said he will miss the court, but he’s looking forward to finding other interesting things to do.
Bill Salisbury can be reached at 651-228-5538. Follow him at twitter.com/bsalisbury.
