The Hon. EDWARD CLEARY recently retired as Chief Judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the state’s second highest court. He is interviewed here on Access to Democracy by guest host Hon. Paul Anderson, who retired from the Minnesota Supreme Court five years ago after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Judge Cleary, initially appointed to the bench by Gov. Jesse Ventura, was then appointed to the Court of Appeals and then as Chief Judge by Gov. Mark Dayton. During his career as an attorney, Cleary won a landmark First Amendment case before the U.S. Supreme Court, R.A.V. vs. St. Paul, contesting a “hate” ordinance which the Court agreed unduly restricted the First Amendment. He wrote a book about the case, “Beyond the Burning Cross.”
