John H. Guthmann is the Chief Judge of Minnesota’s Second Judicial District and a member of the Ramsey County Historical Society Board of Directors. He graduated from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, with a double major in history and political science in 1976 and received his JD from St. Paul’s William Mitchell College of Law1 in 1980. He was Editor-in-Chief of Volume 6 of the William Mitchell Law Review. After clerking for Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Sheran, he spent twenty-seven years in private practice until his appointment to the bench in 2008.
Continue reading “Clara Anderson v. City of St. Paul: A Woman’s Fight to Save Her Job in the Face of Discrimination”Month: June 2020
Public Official, Figures, and Controversies in Minnesota Defamation Law
Professor Mike Steenson, Bell Distinguished Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline
Continue reading “Public Official, Figures, and Controversies in Minnesota Defamation Law”Election Security 2020: How Safe is your Vote?
Josh Numainville is a 2020 graduate of the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Josh’s various writings and research projects provide practitioners with insights into how technology is altering the law. This article is an adaption of Josh’s working paper on election cybersecurity threats, which can be obtained by contacting the author at joshua.numainville@mitchellhamline.edu.
Introduction
Four years removed from the 2016 Presidential Election, politicians continue to debate the extent and effect of Russia’s election interference.1 Despite this polemical handwringing, the United States intelligence community has been clear in its assessment: election interference is a very real threat to U.S. National Security.2 While media attention has focused largely on Russia’s disinformation campaigns, the 2016 election also served as a testing ground for another insidious election interference strategy—cyberattacks on election infrastructure like voting machines and voter registration systems.3 These attacks were, at least according to publicly available information, relatively innocuous in 2016.4 However, the methods and strategies utilized by in 2016 are predictive of the greater threats our election infrastructure will face as foreign adversaries5 further develop their cyber capabilities. This article briefly explores three pressing election security concerns that the United States will face during the 2020 election and beyond, as well as the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to designate election systems as critical infrastructure and the limitations of the critical infrastructure designation.
Continue reading “Election Security 2020: How Safe is your Vote?”Minnesota Supreme Court Holds Appraisal Process Under Insurance Policy is not an “Agreement to Arbitrate” Under Uniform Arbitration Act
Kurt Mattson, William Mitchell Class of 1988, is president of Union Legal Research. His company provides quick, thorough legal research and writing services for attorneys.
Background
The Minnesota Supreme Court recently held the Minnesota Uniform Arbitration Act (“the Act”)1 does not apply to fire insurance appraisal awards under the Minnesota standard fire insurance policy. In Oliver v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance Co.2, the Court said that the district court erred by holding that a motion for pre-award interest on a fire insurance appraisal award was time-barred by the Act.
A fire occurred at the home of Sheila and William Oliver in Edina. The home was insured against fire loss by State Farm. Oliver and State Farm were unable to agree on the amount of the loss, so Oliver requested an appraisal. An appraisal panel issued an award, and State Farm paid. Oliver then sought confirmation of the appraisal award under the Act from the district court. Oliver also moved the court to grant pre-award interest on the appraisal award.
Continue reading “Minnesota Supreme Court Holds Appraisal Process Under Insurance Policy is not an “Agreement to Arbitrate” Under Uniform Arbitration Act”