The Minneapolis Star from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 10

a 10A The Minneapolis Star Friday, Nov. 14, 1980 Amdahl trades hubbub for silent chambers viviality of life in a county courthouse, even one as big as Hennepin County's. "In 25 years, in the old and then the new courthouse, I got to know a tremendous number of peoplei Here, there's no, 'Good the I don't know' anybody." 1 Two years from now, hell beup for his first statewide election. He'll probably run he'll be 65, and it's hard to Imagine him giving up quite that quickly but one wonders how long he'll last. "It'll depend on how I feel as "lp whether I want to keep oh," he says.

"There are some advantages to early retirement. You can work in the trial courts, with a schedule that's just what you want not in fishing or hunting season, for ex ample." Then, wistfully, he adds: "That'd be nice." folks, the court of last resort, it's nice to share the responsibility. "If I was wrong on the trial bench, people could come up here and correct it. It does bother me, the finality here. I'd rather be final because I was right, than right because I was final.

I haven't decided whether I like that," Amdahl says. For all his stern and forbidding looks (he jokes that he once hung a picture of himself in his garage, and managed to scare all the mice away), Amdahl, who was an immensely respected trial judge, seems something of a softy. He speaks of former law clerks who've had kids as "making me a grandfather," and he has a touching letter from one of them framed and hanging in his office. He has two adopted children, one of them still in high school, the other in college. He says he misses the casual con V.

(Judge, from Page 1a) "But as for Doug Barbeau has known for decades "I think he likes it very much. He's the type who's content being by himself. He likes to read law. He works well with people. He likes to read and likes to ponder things," Barbeau says.

Is that so? More or less, Amdahl says. But there are some things he doesn't like. His office is less spacious and less imposing than the one he had on the 19th floor of the Hennepin County Government Center. There, he could gaze out over the Twin Cities and watch the domed stadium taking shape. Now, he's got a great view of a parking lot.

His free time is changing, too. He is a man who has lived for fishing, for big-game hunting in the West. This year? "I've fished once, on opening day, and I haven't fired a shot," he says. "For me, that's unbelievable. "I was reading an article in the paper the other day about hunting in British Columbia.

It made me want to lay down and cry." He is seeing, at very close hand, a phenomenon he'd only read about before: the dizzying increase in the demand for the services of the nine justices of the Minnesota Supreme Court. In 1972, fewer than 600 cases arrived in the mail at the second floor of the Capitol building in St. Paul. By last year, more than twice as many came in 1,212. This year, it'll probably be up to 1,400.

The cases, he says, "just come pouring in here." What does that mean? It means that on a trip to the cabin in northern Wisconsin, the son takes the wheel and Dad sits reading legal briefs on the way up and the way back. It means lots of homework, it means "there've been maybe three or four days since I took this job that I haven't taken home at least an hour to three hours worth of reading. That includes weekends and holidays," Amdahl says. He's not a crybaby. No one was holding a pistol to his head when he decided to apply for this job.

His raise, to $56,000, beat inflation and then some. It's not a salary that would impress many successful lawyers at his age, but he's not eli- i 5th Annual FIREPLACE CENTER Glass Enclosure Sale! gible for food stamps, either. And he likes his job. "I like the law," he says. "Even if I were a dentist, or a shoemaker, I'd like it.

Here," a tiny smile, "che yearning is well-satisfied. And it's a chance to help shape things in the law." Moreover, it's nice to have influenceto be able to wander down the hallway and suggest that a colleague change something in a forthcoming opinion, and in the process, perhaps, help to mold what lawyers will be looking to for guidance for decades. Still, the load, the sheer press of those thousands of people clamoring for justice, is unsettling. Fewer oral arguments Says Amdahl: "There are an awful lot of cases that aren't getting our full attention, there's just no doubt about it." The court has been struggling for years with ways to ensure that everyone gets some attention, but that enough time is left to do a thorough job on the most important cases. The latest change, beginning in September, is that the court will hear oral arguments in just 160 cases.

That is, for every nine of those seeking the court's attention, only one will get a chance to have his or her attorney try, in person, to persuade the full court. That bothers Amdahl. "The attorney in me says that even though I've submitted written briefs, I can add something to that by appearing personally that I can answer questions, for example," he says. (Ultimately, the justices believe, the answer is what's called an "intermediate appellate court." That is, appeals from the trial courts would go first to a panel of judges subordinate to the state Supreme Court, and only then to the top. (That, Amdahl figures, would weed out perhaps 400 to 600 cases entirely and narrow the focus of many others.

But it's going to be a long struggle. So far, the court appears to have gotten no where with the state bar, the Legislature or anyone else in a position to help.) As if the caseload weren't enough, Amdahl is finding that the court has another time-eating job. It's in charge of administering the entire state judiciary. Shortly after he arrived at the Capitol, for instance, Amdahl looked up one day to find his "boss," Chief Justice Robert She-ran, sticking his head in. he says.

"We're having a citizens conference on the courts in February. You're the chairman." "Just setting up the steering committee has been a lot of work," Amdahl says. Other activities And that doesn't count his membership on the state's Sentencing Guidelines Commission, which continues to fine-tune the system of guidelines that took effect in May; and his position on the board of William Mitchell College of Law. The heart of his job takes place in a beautiful blue and white Colonial-style conference room, which, with a balcony outside large draped windows, reminds one of a room in the White House. It's right behind the courtroom, behind the gently curving bench and the nine leather chairs.

Life behind that bench is different. As a trial judge the premium is on an impassive face, lest a stray look of scorn or approval be noticed by the jury. Here, you might say, he's on the jury; he's free to approve or attack. But of a lawyers' favorite game trying to read the court by watching for whether its questions seem hostile he has a warning. "A judge may be attacking one side because he's on that side and he wants to get as much out of the attorney as possible the strongest possible argument.

The judge may be anticipating what his colleagues will argue in the conference room, and be looking for responses from the best source," he says. The routine Back in the conference room, there's a set routine. "If I've been assigned a case, I make a 'report' on it to begin with. Then Judge James Otis, the senior judge, starts off with his opinion of the case, and everyone follows, down to John Simonett, the junior member. Finally, the chief justice summarizes and adds his thoughts," Amdahl says.

The conferences "can be heated. Some of them are real verbal battles. But it's interesting: Once you're at the door afterwards, all that's over. You're with colleagues again. Nothing is carried beyond that door," he says.

All in all, Amdahl likens the job to being "a cog in a bigger wheel, instead of being the wheel," as he was when he acted alone. He adds: "That takes awhile to accept." But when you are, for most Transition team Reagan's choices upset New Right SELECT A BLACK, POLISHED BRASS, ANTIQUE BRASS AND BLACK, OR POLISHED AND BLACK IN ANY AVAILABLE SIZE. UNASSEMBLED "KNOCK DOWN" PflCIHC s9995 PRE-ASSEMBLED DOORS ANY AVAILABLE SIZE IN ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH $129 95 PACIFIC IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FIRESCREENS Optional Mesh Curtain Available WITH SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM, SELECTING A GLASS FIRESCREEN CAN BE CONFUSING. PACIFIC'S GLASS WINDOWS OFFER QUALITY YOU CAN COUNT SAVE YOUR HEAT AND YOUR MONEY. 1 PLEASE BRING CAREFULL MEASUREMENTS OF YOUR FIREPLACE Fireplace Center, Inc.

12324 WAYZATA BLVD. MIKNETONKA, MN 55343 PHONE (612) 545-3797 HOURS M-F, 10-5 SAT. RIDGEDALE'S ACROSS FROM US. llliiH (Transition, servatives that a Reagan administration might adopt policies similar to those pursued by his two GOP predecessors policies the New Right considers too moderate. Thirteen team leaders were chosen Thursday to oversee the transfer of governmental power in the Cabinet departments.

Reagan's transition officials insist that it would be a mistake to interpret too much from the selection of transition personnel. James Brady, press secretary of the transition office, said the jobs were not granted because of political philosophy, but because the former officials were experienced government "technicians" who could make assessments of the problems the Reagan administration will confront in taking over the government. Reagan's aides also contend that the 13 team leaders are not necessarily potential Cabinet secretaries. Among those appointed to head specific teams were Gerald Parsky, who will direct the transition at the Treasury Department, where he was an assistant secretary for Nixon and Ford; Richard Lyng, at the Department of Agriculture, where he was an assistant secretary under Nixon; Richard Shu-bert, at the Labor Department, where he was solicitor and undersecretary for Nixon and Ford, and Richard Wiley, at the Justice Department. Wiley was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission for Nixon and Ford.

The New Right, which advocates major tax cuts, sharp reductions in social spending and a massive military buildup, has been particularly critical that advisory positions have been given to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Treasury Secretary George Shultz and Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. "We're concerned that the type of people who are setting policy in the budget area are concerned with merely slowing growth of government, instead of making real cuts," Phillips said in an interview. "Treaties with the Soviet Union are not the way to protect American interests." "If Ronald Reagan was to install himself as the second act of the TV not Included Accept the challenge today YdDtffl ALL Art I iuuc Dnnoo nnion 316 TEMPERED GLASS EASY TO INSTALL SAVES HEAT AND MONEY. "KNOCK DOWN" $10995 7 SELECT YOUR SIZE ENCLOSURES TO FIT MOST ANY MA? SONRY FIREPLACE. BLACK, POtr ISHED, BLACK BRASS PRE-ASSEMBLED '-EASY-TO-INSTALL GLASS DOORS 995 pacific C-n mm jpaxfV'l' Sale "ilP' QMTf Sale LjAUA jt Leaoue Baseball.

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Paul Weyrich, another conservative leader and architect of the evangelical political movement known as the Moral Majority, said Reagan officials were polite when the New Right offered suggestions about personnel. But they apparently are ignoring the advice, he added. Asked what input he had in the initial stages of the Reagan transition, Weyrich answered: "None." But one source within the Reagan campaign staff said the New Right leaders had effectively "written themselves off" from any influence within the Reagan administration by warning the president-elect not to waver from his conservative positions. The team leader named for the Department of Defense, William R. Van Cleave, said Thursday that he will "definitely not" become Defense secretary.

Van Cleave, a Pentagon official for Nixon, has been mentioned for the Pentagon post. Ironically, Van Cleave was one former Nixon official whom New Right leaders indicated would be acceptable to them as Defense secretary. Members of the Reagan transition team fanned out through the Cabinet departments Thursday, meeting with Carter administration officials and taking stock of the policies and problems Reagan will inherit Jan. 20. "We're trying to identify the time bombs before they explode," said one official in Reagan's transition office.

The other team leaders named Thursday: Robert E. Neumann, for the State Department; Calvin J. Collier, for Commerce; Robert B. Carleson, for Health and Human Services; Arthur E. Teele, for Transportation; Michel T.

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