Author: Samuel Postell
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Justice Paul Thissen will run for a full term on the Minnesota Supreme Court
On May 19, 2020, Justice Paul Thissen announced that he had filed to run in the 2020 election for the Minnesota Supreme Court. “I am excited to launch my campaign, even in these trying circumstances… My first years as a justice have confirmed how deeply our courts touch the lives of Minnesotans in the most…
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Virginia Supreme Court to hear environmental law case on oyster fisheries
On May 18, 2020, the Virginia Supreme Court announced that it will hear a case between the City of Suffolk and a group of Virginia oyster fishermen. The original lawsuit was filed in November 2018 by C. Robert Johnson III, Lisa Lawson Johnson, Thomas Hazelwood, Johnson and Sons Seafood, and Hazelwood Oyster Farms, who sued…
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Minnesota Gov Tim Walz (D) appoints Gordon Moore to state Supreme Court
On May 15, 2020 Gov. Tim Walz (D) announced District Court Justice Gordon Moore as his first appointment to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Justice David Lillehaug intends to resign in July 2020, and Justice Moore will take his seat on the bench. Lillehaug has served on the Minnesota Supreme Court since 2013, and announced that…
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Van Pounds Challenges Incumbent Justice Thomas Balmer for Position 1 on the Oregon Supreme Court
Primaries are taking place for three positions on the Oregon Supreme Court on May 19, 2020. The Position 1 primary is the only contested primary, between current Justice Thomas Balmer and Van Pounds. If a justice wins over fifty percent of the vote in the primary election, then he secures a seat on the supreme…
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Chair of Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee seeks appointment to she state Supreme Court
On April 28, 2020, State Senator Erin Lynch Prata (D-RI), applied to fill retiring Justice Gilbert Indeglia’s seat on the state supreme court. Senator Lynch Prata is a former clerk to Supreme Court Associate Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg. She stated that becoming a supreme court justice “has always been a dream,” and that the position on…
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Illinois Supreme Court rules fantasy sports a game of skill, not chance
In April 2016, Illinois residents Colin Dew-Becker and Andrew Wu competed in a fantasy sports contest hosted by the website FanDuel. They each paid a total of $109: a $100 wager and a $9 fee to the company. Wu defeated Dew-Becker, and three days later Dew-Becker invoked an 1819 law called The Loss Recovery Act…
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Alaska Supreme Court Justice Craig Stowers announces early retirement, anticipates wave of mandatory retirements
Thirty-two states have constitutionally mandated retirement ages for state supreme court justices. Twenty of those states mandate retirement at 70 years of age. Alaska is one of them, and four of the five justices on the Alaska Supreme Court will be required to retire between February 2023 and February 2025. Regarding the upcoming turnover of…
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Maryland Senate passes Maryland Renaming Court of Appeals Amendment
Maryland and New York are the only states in the nation that do not call its court of last resort the supreme court, but that could change after November 3, 2020. On March 13, 2020, the Maryland Senate passed Senate Bill 0393 by a vote of 45-1. If the bill is passed by the General…
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Filing deadline passes for state executive, legislative offices in Maine, Colorado, and Utah
The filing deadline to run for elected office passed this week in Maine, Colorado, and Utah. Maine’s filing deadline was March 16, Colorado’s was March 17, and Utah’s was March 19. In Maine, prospective candidates could file for the following state offices: State Senate (35 seats) State House (151 seats) In Colorado, prospective candidates could…
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Georgia cancels state supreme court election after sitting justice announces retirement; Gov. Kemp will appoint replacement
On March 5, 2020, two aspiring candidates for Georgia Supreme Court filed suit against the state’s highest election official because the race in which they hoped to compete was taken off the ballot the day before the qualifying period began. On February 28, 2020, Justice Keith Blackwell announced that he will be retiring from the…