This event is free and open to the public. Application will be made for Minnesota CLE credits.

Sponsored by the student committee for the establishment of the William Mitchell Journal for Public Policy.

For more event information contact Vice Dean Eric Janus:

 (651) 290-6310
ejanus@wmitchell.edu

Questions about registration should be directed to the Alumni office:

(651) 290-6370
alumni@wmitchell.edu

Regulating Judicial Campaign Speech:

Judicial Elections in the Aftermath of Republican Party of Minnesota v. White

Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 6-8 p.m.

William Mitchell Auditorium

In a 5-4 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White that candidates for judicial election could not be barred from announcing their views on disputed legal and political issues. Subsequently, the Eighth Circuit held that under the First Amendment, judicial candidates also could not be prohibited from announcing their political party affiliations, or from seeking and using party endorsements. This symposium will examine if these rulings could jeopardize the integrity of the bench.

William Mitchell Vice Dean Eric S. Janus will introduce the featured speakers

Professor Guy-Uriel E. Charles, University of Minnesota Law School, and Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul H. Anderson will open the event respectively, sharing their academic and judicial perspectives on the issues of judicial activism and the ruling’s potential impact on the judiciary’s impartiality.

William Mitchell Professor Raleigh H. Levine will moderate a panel discussion between the parties in the case

Petitioners: William Mohrman, Sen. Julianne Ortman; Respondents: Mary Vasaly, Alan I. Gilbert with former judicial campaign manager Daniel Le and judges James F. Clark Jr., John B. Van de North Jr., and Edward S. Wilson.

About the participants