Sometimes the Good Guy Does Finish First

When the now-retiring Chief Justice Russell Anderson of the Minnesota Supreme Court was first beginning his service as a judge, in 1982, he handled a case that would eventually have major repercussions for the safety of women in Minnesota and across the world.

As a judge in northern Minnesota—he served as district judge for the 9th Judicial District from 1982 to 1998, working out of Crookston—he signed an order for protection for a woman whose husband had made threats against her. Anderson knew the woman because she worked in the courthouse. As he drove home from the Twin Cities on Valentine’s Day, he heard on the radio that the husband had shot her and killed himself.

He recalls, “The petition mentioned a weapon, and I didn’t pick up on it. Believe me, after that, where there were weapons, I ordered them confiscated.” He also formed domestic violence councils that involved medical providers, law enforcement, treatment providers, prosecutors and public defenders.

His predecessor as chief justice, Kathleen Blatz, and Mary Lou Klas, a retired Ramsey County district judge, believe that much credit for progress against domestic violence in Minnesota is due to Anderson’s early leadership. Blatz says, “We do not realize it, because it has been decades now, but attempting to improve domestic abuse laws was controversial when it started. Russell does not talk about how terrible it was or how frustrating. Instead he just dug in and eventually was successful.”

Klas recalls, “He was a voice in the wilderness.”

Anderson has been influential beyond Minnesota. In 1993 and 1995 he was part of delegations helping Russian government officials understand how to create policy for the prevention of domestic violence. Former Minnesota state senator Ember Reichgott Junge noticed the respect and attention the Russians paid to a male judge taking a leadership role on this issue. “He was so passionate, and their ears were certainly wide open when he spoke.”

In a state rich in Andersons, it would be easy to let a Chief Justice Anderson pass unremarked into retirement—especially from a Supreme Court recently populated by a trio of them. That would be a mistake. With Chief Justice Russell Anderson, only his name is unremarkable.

Anderson, says Supreme Court Associate Justice Alan Page, has an “incredible ability to listen even when some of us would say, ‘I’ve heard enough.’ His path has been Minnesota Nice in its most positive sense.”

Anderson’s quick wit and congenial nature might fool some people into thinking he is a pushover. But that definitively is not the case. Blatz remembers Anderson for listening intently to his colleagues and not being afraid to modify his stance if persuaded. At the same time, she says, “He has a backbone of steel. He does not dig in stubbornly, but if he really believes in the vision to administer justice better in domestic abuse cases or to administer the court system better, if it’s controversial, he does not worry about that. He has courage.”

“When it comes to bias elimination, domestic violence, dealing with the difficult problem of chemically dependent people, and doing what he can to ensure fair and impartial courts, he does not walk away,” adds Page. “He just keeps swimming.”

Problem-Solving Courts

He has been a standard bearer for Minnesota’s Drug Courts, the best known in a class of problem-solving courts.

“I am greatly concerned with the trend in which every time there is a societal problem we just add another hundred months on to sentences and fill our prisons,” explains Anderson. “For the benefit of taxpayers and for the good of our society, we have to come up with better solutions than trying to incarcerate our way out of society’s problems.”

Having studied recidivism rates, Anderson has concluded that Drug Courts are indeed cost-effective even though they consume a great deal of resources. “It’s cost-effective in terms of saving incarceration costs but more importantly in saving lives,” he says. “With the help of probation departments, prosecutors, public defenders, treatment providers and the courts, there is a great effort to surround addicted individuals with support and treatment and sanctions, so they can be contributing members of society.”

Becoming a Judge

Before Gov. Tim Pawlenty appointed him chief justice in January 2006, Anderson served as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, appointed by Gov. Arne Carlson in 1998. He had his years in Crookston and before that was in private practice and served as Beltrami County Attorney from 1978 to 1982.

“Russ,” says Blatz, “had more experience on the trial bench when he was appointed than the average judge in all the trial courts. He brought a lot of credibility. He had done it all.”

He served in the JAG Corps, U.S. Navy, in Japan and Washington, D.C., from 1968 to 1976. Fresh out of the University of Minnesota Law School, Anderson was stationed in Japan for three years. He rose to the position of base legal officer at Sasebo on the island of Kyushu. He recalls, “When American service members commit offenses off base against Japanese citizens, they are subject to the jurisdiction of the Japanese courts. I was a representative, by designation of the ambassador, to attend trials in Japanese courts. It was fascinating. Then during the Vietnam War, I prosecuted and defended a lot of criminal cases. It was a good grounding in criminal law.”

Indeed, becoming a judge seems to have been more a matter of inspiration than aspiration.

“I suspect he never had any ambition to be chief,” says Page. “I don’t know that he necessarily had ambition to be on the Supreme Court. But there is something about some people—the way they handle themselves, the way they are as people—that gets recognized even when they’re not necessarily trying to be. The qualities that make up Russ Anderson are hard to ignore.”

Joan Ericksen, United States district judge for Minnesota, and Anderson were sworn in as associate justices on the Supreme Court on the same day in 1998. They met when their appointments were announced. She recalls, “Everyone who appeared in front of him was extremely impressed. The thing about Russ is not only temperament, but he’s just so darn smart and prepared.”

Ericksen’s experience bears out Page’s belief that Anderson did not aspire to be on the Supreme Court, much less become chief justice. “He was like a little kid when he got to be chief justice. You wouldn’t think that someone as mild-mannered and self-effacing as Russ would be that touched and thrilled. I remember him saying, ‘Joan, I just can’t believe it.’”

And the thrill isn’t gone as he retires to spend more time on family, the piano, books and travel. He says, “I have enjoyed every minute of it from the time I went on the trial court in Bemidji to my service as chief justice.”

Judicial Independence

Anderson may be retiring from the state’s highest judicial position, but he is not retiring from a chief priority: maintaining public trust and confidence in the fairness and quality of the courts. He plans to continue using his considerable energy and experience to educate the electorate about the dangers involved in the political election of judges in the state. In fact, he’s like a lighthouse beacon, going round and round, trying to pierce fogs of indifference and resistance and keep Minnesota’s doors closed to “high-cost, highly contested campaigns.”

The U.S. Supreme Court and 8th Circuit Court of Appeals decisions in 2002 in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White disturbed Anderson enough to make the issue of preserving a fair and “unpurchased” judiciary the keynote of his swearing-in address as chief justice.

However, before he decided which model of judicial selection to endorse, he both sounded the warning bell and listened throughout and beyond Minnesota. And he waited for the report of the Minnesota Citizens Commission for the Preservation of an Impartial Judiciary, chaired by former governor Al Quie.

While that consultative approach is quintessential Anderson, so is his refusal to back down on an issue he considers fundamental to our democracy.

To Anderson, it is essential that people who come to court—often under the most stressful circumstances—receive fair hearings from judges free of partisan politics and funding and in positions to rule solely on the basis of the law and the facts of the cases.

Having consulted and considered, Anderson reports, “I spoke to the Legislature not too long ago and endorsed merit selection and retention elections; that is, appointment of judges by the governor. And, of course, accountability and some measure of review. I grieve over what I see in other states, where huge amounts of money are being spent on judicial election campaigns and where, as a result, there is engendered such disrespect for the rule of law and for the role of the courts.”

Ericksen considers Anderson’s retirement “the end of an era, an era of gentlemanly, scholarly, apolitical dispensation of justice.” Minnesotans could well hope that he remains a model for the future.

Karen K. Hansen is a Minneapolis-based writer and musician who first met Russell and Kristin Anderson in Bemidji in 1981.