Not long after learning that she would be challenged on the November ballot, Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Lucinda Jesson decided to dump copies of each judicial opinion she authored since joining the bench in 2016 onto a suddenly necessary campaign website.
"I know there's always going to be some legal jargon, but I've tried to write opinions so that normal Minnesotans can understand them," Jesson said in an interview this week. "So, I guess this is my test."
Jesson, who was commissioner of the state's Department of Human Services before being appointed to the court by Gov. Mark Dayton, faces St. Paul private attorney Anthony L. Brown in the first electoral challenge of a state Appeals Court judge since 2010.
But before their Election Day showdown, the two will first meet Thursday in a forum organized by the League of Women Voters in Golden Valley. Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Margaret Chutich and her challenger, West St. Paul attorney Michelle MacDonald, have also been invited.
The pair of appellate court races are among just eight contested judicial seats this year; the remainder of the 97 judicial seats on the ballot are uncontested. Brown, 41, will be running in his first judicial contest partly, he said, to give voters a say in a process that often finds the governor picking jurists whose entire tenure on the bench can pass unchallenged. He and Jesson are competing for a six-year term.
"Part of my goal in this is to force judges to get out there and talk to the community," Brown said. "Encourage lawyers to run so that the public can get the opportunity to get more educated."
Brown — who goes by "A.L." — said he decided to run against Jesson, 60, because of his desire to serve on the court and because Jesson had the least amount of tenure among at-large judges on the ballot.
Brown has practiced law for about 18 years since moving to Minnesota from Chicago to attend Hamline University's law school. He works in both civil and criminal law, contracts with the Ramsey County public defender's office and provides legal counsel for a student loan business. Brown previously clerked for U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, whom he counts as a chief legal influence.