Laura Thomas Appointed to Judge in Minnesota

It looks like the State of Minnesota has a new judge.

Her name is Laura Thomas.

Governor Tim Walz has appointed Professor Laura Thomas as a District Court judge in Minnesota’s Fourth Judicial District. Thomas will be chambered in Minneapolis in Hennepin County.
“Laura Thomas has been a beloved teacher, an exemplary faculty colleague, and a key architect of our leading clinical program,” said Garry W. Jenkins, dean and William S. Pattee Professor of Law. “We will miss her enthusiasm and dedication. Yet, it is always a point of great pride when a member of our community is called to the bench. I am confident that she will be a wise and even-handed jurist.”
In addition to serving as a clinical professor of law, Thomas has served as director of Law Clinics. She has been instrumental in designing Law in Practice, a lawyering skills program at the Law School, for which she co-authored a nationally recognized textbook and which she teaches annually. She also supervises and mentors student attorneys who represent indigent and working poor individuals through the Law Clinic program. She was the 2018 recipient of the Stanley V. Kinyon Clinical Teacher of the Year Award.

Who is Laura Thomas? Here she is in 2013 below.  About three minutes into the broadcast, newly minted Judge Thomas gives this stunning statement about parental alienation, which she described as "a sustained attack on a relationship" by one parent against the other regarding their children.

That statement is, "“Mom presents the child with a toy right before the father is schedule to come (for parenting time)”

Get that, new Judge Laura Thomas thinks if you give the child a toy, right before the other parent is to see the child, that's an example of this "sustained attack on the other parent. 

I asked then Ms. Thomas, who was a professor at the University of Minnesota, about this statement. 

Here was her response, "Dear Mr. Volpe - I don't provide commentary on individual cases which you are obviously seeking." 

Except, I wasn't asking about any individual case, but rather this statement. 

She refused to clarify or explain what she meant by giving a child a toy is a form of parental alienation. 

Find the full article here. 

As I've said before, my biggest problem with people like new Judge Laura Thomas is that with parental alienation it is whatever they want it to be. Now, this woman, who thinks giving a child a toy is parental alienation, will be able to interpret parental alienation anyway she wants from the bench in Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is at. 

It's also noteworthy that in Minnesota judges are elected, even though Governor Walz appointed her. 

That's because new Judge Laura Thomas is part of another trend. Even though judges are elected, most retire before their term is up, so that Governors can appoint a new judge, who is then re-elected overwhelmingly. 

Judge David Knutson- who once forced Michelle MacDonald, a lawyer, to conduct a custody trial handcuffed to a wheelchair, was also appointed in 2004  by then Governor Tim Pawlenty and then elected in 2006. 

Far too often, judges in Minnesota, who are supposed to be elected, are instead appointed to fill the seat of retiring judges- or judges who did not finish the term they were elected to complete. Instead, a judge is installed by the political establishment and then elected only after already having served. 

It's one of many problems with the Minnesota judiciary which is not mentioned by the media so the voters don't realize that the judiciary has been scamming them for years by having judges retire early so that connected people can be appointed and have an advantage when it is time to be elected. Judge Thomas is just the latest. 

Unfortunately, it seems she'll fit in very nicely in this state's judiciary.