Panel names 6 finalists for 2 open seats on MN Supreme Court

Alex Derosier, Pioneer Press
Updated ·3 min read
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A judicial selection panel has recommended six finalists to fill two soon-to-be vacant seats on the Minnesota Supreme Court, Gov. Tim Walz’s office announced Monday.

Walz earlier this year asked a merit selection panel to seek applicants and recommend candidates for appointment. Two currently serve on the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and another is a chief Minnesota district judge. Others are experienced attorneys.

The new justices will replace Associate Justices G. Barry Anderson and Margaret H. Chutich when they retire. Anderson, the last remaining justice to be appointed by a Republican governor, is set to step down on May 10. Chutich, the first openly LGBTQ+ community member to serve on the court, is stepping down on July 31.

When Walz picks their replacements they’ll be the third and fourth members he appoints to the Supreme Court. Walz, a Democrat, has been governor since 2019 and started his second four-year term last year. The governor’s office provided names of the five women and one man selected by the panel in a Monday news release:

Lisa Beane

Senior associate general counsel in the University of Minnesota’s Office of the General Counsel. Clerked for Minnesota U.S. District Court Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright on the federal bench and for the Minnesota Supreme Court. Before working at the U, she was an associate at law firms Jones Day and Robins Kaplan LLP.

Elizabeth Bentley

Founder and director of the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic and a visiting assistant professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Before that, she served as special counsel to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar during the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and worked at Jones Day. She also served as served as a law clerk to the Sonia Sotomayor on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Keala Ede

Judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals and former federal public defender in Minneapolis. He also served as an assistant attorney general in Minnesota, and clerked for a justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Theodora Gaïtas

Also a judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals and former judge in Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial District. Co-chair of the Tribal Court State Court Forum, which promotes cooperation between tribal and state courts. She co-chairs the Court of Appeals’ Equal Justice Committee and law clerk recruiting committee.

Sarah Hennesy

Chief judge of Minnesota’s Seventh Judicial District who is chambered in St, Cloud. Formerly worked as an appellate public defender in Iowa, a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C., and Virginia, and a former staff attorney at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, which provides representation for poor clients.

Liz Kramer

Current Solicitor General of Minnesota, a role within the Attorney General’s Office that represents Minnesota in state and federal appellate courts and defends the constitutionality of state law. She worked as a partner at Stinson LLP, where she practiced complex commercial litigation, and clerked on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Walz appointments

Last year, Walz appointed Karl Procaccini to an associate justice position after Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, 2006 appointee of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, announced her retirement. (Pawlenty also appointed Anderson, in 2004.) Natalie Hudson, a 2015 appointee of DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, became the new chief justice after Gildea’s departure.

Walz also appointed Associate Justice Gordon Moore in 2020. Moore succeeded Associate Justice David Lillehaug, a Dayton appointee.

Associate Justices Margaret Chutich, Anne McKeig and Paul Thissen also are Dayton appointees. Democrats have held the governor’s office since 2011.

Minnesota Supreme Court justices are typically appointed by the governor when there’s a vacancy on the court, though they do face election and serve six-year terms.

Judicial positions are nonpartisan in Minnesota.

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