Star Tribune
Amy Coney Barrett takes on court ethics, collegiality in University Minnesota talk briefly marred by protesters
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett talked about ethics, national unity and literary and legal influences during an event at the University of Minnesota’s Northrop auditorium that was briefly interrupted by a handful of protesters.
As Coney Barrett was about to discuss the legislative origins of former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s commitment to federalism, a small group of protesters in the front of the first balcony stood and began chanting, “Not the court, not the state, the people will decide their fate.”
Within a minute, the protesters were removed from Northrop and former U Law School Dean Robert Stein resumed the conversation, saying, “We really are Minnesota nice; we don’t treat other people like that very often. We really are glad you’re here.”
That was the overall tone of the 90-minute event that would qualify as exceedingly gentle questioning. Stein, who funds the lecture series, did not press Coney Barrett with difficult follow-up questions on controversial matters such as a code of ethics. She was not paid for her speech.
As the protesters chanted in the balcony, Coney Barrett sat silently on the stage in her fitted beige pantsuit, neither reacting to nor mentioning the chants among the 2,000 spectators that included numerous judges, justices, lawyers and students at the ticketed, but free public event.
Stein picked up his questioning by asking whether the high court was what she thought it would be before she was nominated by former President Donald Trump as a successor to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in fall 2020.
She said the work can be challenging because majority opinions must be agreed to by a majority of the nine justices and don’t represent just the opinions of the author.
Stein asked whether the court should adopt a code of conduct, a prospect that has been widely discussed following numerous revelations about lavish gifts accepted but not disclosed by Justice Clarence Thomas.
Coney Barrett said it’s a good idea so the court can “express what we are already doing,” which she said is holding themselves to “the highest ethical standards possible.”
The justice said she couldn’t guess on the timing of a code, but repeated that “All nine justices are very committed to the highest ethical standard.”
Stein’s gentle approach afforded Coney Barrett time to share a succession of slim anecdotes and quips. In comparing herself to her mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, she likened herself to a menu item with a flavor intensity of one out of three jalapeños, while he was more fiery.
Among the biggest lessons imparted by Scalia, Coney Barrett said he told his law clerks to make an unbreakable commitment to eating dinner at home with family.
Stein asked about collegiality among the court’s four female members. Coney Barrett said it’s delightful to have the companionship on the court, but “I don’t think that my perspective or anybody’s perspective is different by being a woman.”
Stein asked Coney Barrett about being a mother with young children and how she balances that with her work. She said her days are much like any working mom’s and that four of her seven children remain in grade school or high school. “The juxtaposition can be funny,” she said, noting that her 11-year-old son’s musical choice meant she had the earworm “Who Let the Dogs Out” in her head as she entered the courthouse one day.
Protesting the heavily secured event outside Northrop were an estimated 200 people, who oppose Coney Barrett’s position on the court as well as decisions she’s participated in including the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Protesters could not be heard or seen from inside the building.
Stein asked Coney Barrett what advice she’d give to law students. The former Notre Dame Law School professor said, “Take advantage of all of your opportunities to learn about lots of things and to challenge yourselves. Expose yourself to ideas you might not think you agree with.”
Among other tidbits, Coney Barrett said Ernest Hemingway’s work influenced her spare, linear approach to legal writing. She said the legal profession could be more welcoming to underrepresented groups if professors, judges and lawyers did more mentoring.
In summation, Coney Barrett said what’s striking about the United States is that “we are a huge country” in terms of population and land mass, living under a large tent and “the Constitution is what unites us. And so we have to figure out a way to find our common ground and persuade one another and see one another’s humanity.”
That hasn’t ebbed with Simpli-Fi. The startup incorporated in 2018 as a company based out of Florida that integrated technology systems together in commercial buildings to work as a single unit. But business sputtered when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and Campbell had to make staff cuts to his team of 16 employees. He called it one of “the worst times” of his life.
“But during that time is where we made a pivot,” Campbell said.
He set out to find a new technology, eventually spotting NASA’s electronic nose thanks to Brown Venture Group, a St. Paul based firm that supports Black, Latino and Indigenous tech startups. Campbell’s brother, Paul Campbell, is a partner at the firm but said he recused himself from the investment decision.
Chris Campbell was skeptical of the electronic nose’s capabilities at first but sprung for a commercialization license after spending a year researching the technology. By this past summer, he had moved the company to Minnesota and specifically the Osborne building because both are “known for device creation,” he said.
Simpli-Fi’s sensor packs some of the science of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry — which require huge machines — into a sensor the size of a dime, Campbell said. Using nanotubes, the sensor picks up metabolic qualities in the air and breath, he said.
For now, the company is focused on the C. diff-sensing Provectus Canary device, which scans the air around a hospital patient to detect the bacteria that causes the infection, which has gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea. The company is working toward the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for using the sensor to detect various diseases.
A Minneapolis man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for murdering his neighbor in their North Side apartment building last year.
Walter Lee Hill, 59, had pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree intentional murder. He will get credit for having served nearly a year in jail.
Police were called to the Gateway Lofts on W. Broadway Avenue last November on a report that someone was shot. Officers found Donald Edmondson, 60, dead on the floor of his apartment with a gunshot wound to the chest.
A video camera in the hallway showed Hill knocking on Edmondson’s door, reaching into his sweatshirt pocket and firing his gun once. Hill then left in his Lexus, which officers found near Elliot Park downtown.
They spotted Hill walking nearby, asked for his ID and arrested him when he said something to the effect that they had the right guy.
A witness told police they saw Hill shoot Edmondson, and another said there had been an ongoing dispute between the two. Two days before the murder, Hill had called police because he believed neighbors were breaking into his apartment.
In a statement, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Edmondson “should still be alive. A violent act committed with such disregard by Mr. Hill has taken him from his family. This sentence delivers accountability and protects our community, and I hope it brings some measure of peace to Mr. Edmondson’s loved ones as they attempt to move forward with their lives.”
ROCHESTER – Buoyed by strong growth in the health care industry, Minnesota’s third-largest city continues to outpace the rest of the state in job creation.
The Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area added about 7,000 jobs over the past year, a 6.3% year-to-year increase, according to the September jobs report from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). By comparison, Minnesota as a whole was up 1.2% during the same time period. The next closest region to Rochester was Mankato, which grew 1.6% year to year.
Much of the growth in Rochester MSA, which includes Dodge, Fillmore, Olmsted and Wabasha counties, was driven by a 15% year-to-year increase in the education and health services sector. The sector employed 62,435 people in the region in September, nearly half the overall workforce.
The strong job numbers come as Mayo Clinic breaks ground on the first phases of “Bold. Forward. Unbound. In Rochester.” The $5 billion project — the largest investment in Minnesota history — is expected to bring about 2,000 construction workers to Rochester in the coming years.
While Mayo has not said how many employees it plans to hire once the new facilities open, local economic development officials expect the impacts of the expansion to reverberate across the region.
“As their growth goes up, the rest of the economy grows as well,” said John Wade, president of the Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI). “If you think about neighboring communities, too, there will be more housing opportunities and job opportunities and businesses looking to expand.”
Wade said he also sees potential for growth in other sectors tied to Mayo, such as hospitality, which makes up more than 8% of the region’s workforce. Precision manufacturing and medical technology were also identified as potential growth sectors.
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