The collection consists of the correspondence, printed materials, and legal case files of a Minneapolis (Minn.) lawyer and pacifist. Bruvold became active in the peace movement while a law student at the University of Minnesota in the late 1930s. When the Selective Service Act was passed in 1940, Bruvold registered as a conscientious objector and received an agricultural deferment which lasted until sometime in June 1945 when he lost the deferment and then spent the next 14 months in a conservation camp. After Bruvold passed the state bar exam in 1947 he began a law practice that defended many conscientious objectors and anti-war protestors. He was also concerned with the cooperative movement and worked with a number of housing, credit union, food, farming, and health care cooperatives.
The papers consist largely of files documenting Bruvold's casework in these two broad areas as well as his early association with pacifist organizations and the Minneapolis No-Conscription Campaign. There are case files (1948-1975) of many conscientious objectors, many of them argued before the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Eighth District Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court which heard the landmark case of Gutknecht v. United States. Casework regarding cooperatives (1949-1980) documents Bruvold's legal work for a large number of individual cooperatives and cooperative associations. The collection also includes a set of miscellaneous case files that document Bruvold's work on other civil and criminal actions. These cases range from job terminations to controlled substance arrests.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
Until 2020, access to certain files requires written permission. Researchers wishing to see restricted materials must apply in writing for that permission. Please consult the reference staff for more information.
Accession number: 14,277; 15,373
Processed by: Bonnie Palmquist, September 1991; Monica Manny Ralston, February 2001
Catalog ID number: 09-00022260
Files related to Bruvold's association with the pacifist movement and with conscientious objectors are roughly divided in two periods. The first period consists of files that originated when Bruvold was a student at the University of Minnesota and was active with pacifist groups opposed to compulsory conscription and to American involvement in the second World War. Materials from this period include Bruvold's correspondence as chairman of the Minneapolis No-Conscription Campaign with the War Resisters League, the Campaign for World Government, the Youth Committee Against War, the Independent Campaign Committee for Thomas and Kreuger, and others. Also included from this period are many printed materials distributed by these and other pacifist organizations, materials from youth conferences that Bruvold attended, and minutes from the organizing convention of the Socialist Party of Minnesota.
The second period consists of files that were created after World War II through Bruvold's work as an attorney representing conscientious objectors, draft resisters, and anti-war protesters. The case files range in date from 1948-1975, but the bulk are centered around the Vietnam War period. The files contain consultative notes, correspondence, indictments, briefs, motions, orders, hearing transcripts, background material, and copies of Selective Service files for men who were charged with registration delinquencies and induction refusals or who contested their classification status. Many of these cases focus on the October 1967 memoranda issued by General Louis B. Hershey, head of the Selective Service, that directed local draft boards to reclassify and accelerate the induction of draft protesters. Several cases were argued before the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Eighth District Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Bruvold argued the landmark Gutknecht case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that men declared delinquent as a result of protest activities could not be accelerated for induction. Bruvold successfully used this same argument in the cases of Rolf Kolden, John Andrew Seman, and Francis Robert Shor.
The subject files contain material related to Bruvold's representation of Vietnam War protesters on the University of Minnesota campus and the "Minnesota Eight" arrested for raiding draft board offices. Also included within the subject files are materials pertaining to a bail fund for conscientious objectors and a network of lawyers.
Includes materials pertaining to anti-conscription activities in the Twin Cities area organized by the No-Conscription Campaign, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Pacifist Action Fellowship, and the Twin City Area Youth Committee Against War.
Bruvold was a member of the Calling Committee which held the organizing convention of the Party on May 17, 1942. Also included are the constitution and minutes of the first two State Executive Committee meetings.
Bruvold was a member of the editorial board of this mimeographed magazine.
Includes issues of the Committee's
Includes pamphlets and other materials distributed by the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the American Anti-War
Crusade, the National Council for Prevention of War, and the American Friends
Service Committee. Also includes the November and December 1941 issues of
Includes the names and addresses of Vietnam War era draft registrants who consulted with Bruvold.
Includes materials related to routine draft procedures and conscientious objectors, as well as correspondence and legal instruments regarding incorporation and the lease of office space in Minneapolis.
Includes correspondence, agreements, and financial information concerning a fund created to provide bail for conscientious objectors. Also includes materials regarding the Movement Legal Defense Fund created to provide bail monies for anti-war protesters.
Includes correspondence, statements, arrest complaints, motions, memoranda, and orders regarding the arrest of 14 persons during a demonstration held on the night of July 11, 1970 outside the Minneapolis City Hall and County Courthouse to protest the high bail set for the "Minnesota Eight" who had conducted raids on draft board offices.
Correspondence related to a network of lawyers willing to take conscientious objectors as clients. Includes a list of participating attorneys.
Contains the respondent's briefs in the delinquent registration cases of James J. Oestereich (10th circuit) and Timothy J. Breen (2nd circuit). Findings in both these cases were used in briefs prepared for the Gutknecht case.
Correspondence and court documents related to the trial of anti-war protesters who demonstrated on the University of Minnesota campus May 10, 11, and 13, 1972.
Copies of arrest complaints, news clippings, and notes regarding a demonstration held May 8, 1972 on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus.
Includes working papers that reported the majority and minority opinions of the Committee.
Newsletter published by the National Service Board for Religious Objectors.
Includes newsletters, leaflets, pamphlets, Army regulations, and other material distributed by national and state organizations including Twin Cities Draft Information Center, Minnesota Clergy and Laity Concerned, Minnesota Draft and Military Help, Los Angeles Committee for Conscientious Objectors, Chicago Area Draft Resisters, American Friends Service Committee, and National Service Board for Religious Objectors. As well as focusing upon pacifism and conscientious objection some items also focus on the civil rights of the mentally ill and the 1973 American Indian occupation of Wounded Knee.
Bruvold's work with cooperatives primarily consisted of formulating articles of incorporation and bylaws for cooperative associations. These associations represent a number of communal, residential, financial, food marketing, farm, and health care cooperatives. The largest files pertain to Group Health Plan, Pulaski Lake Shores Association, and Twin City Coop Credit Union. The files contain correspondence, consultative notes, articles of incorporation, bylaws, minutes of board and shareholders meetings, and financial statements. Also included are documents related to Bruvold's representation of credit unions in loan default proceedings.
Correspondence and other documents related to the denied application of New Communities, Inc., a Minnesota communual cooperative, to file an amicus curiae brief in a Supreme Court case.
Correspondence, agreements, financial statements, and other papers related to the sale of a residence held by the Castle Community Co-op Association.
Includes court documents, consultation notes, and other materials concerning a violation of the city's fire ordinance regulations.
Includes correspondence, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and financial statements for a cooperative that marketed and distributed goods to other cooperatives. Also includes information about the incorporation of the Builders and Laborers Commonwealth Cooperative Association.
Includes minutes, financial information, correspondence, audit reports, and other papers related to the liquidation of a fuel oil cooperative established in 1933 and sold to Midland Cooperatives in 1959.
Includes correspondence and miscellaneous material pertaining to a committee that planned conferences for the Minnesota League of Credit Unions.
Correspondence, apartment plans, and legal papers related to the title registration of an apartment building at 2739 Girard Avenue South by an apartment owners association.
Includes articles of incorporation, bylaws, and other information regarding the transfer of the wholesale business of Prairie Harvest Collective (Winona, Minn.) to Great River Wholesale Co-op.
Bruvold was a member of the interim committee formed to increase membership. Includes minutes, financial records, correspondence, and bylaws, as well as a 25-year report produced in 1963 and a 1964 annual report.
Consultative notes, financial statements, and correspondence regarding the liquidation of this corporation.
The file includes correspondence and legal instruments related to Bruvold's representation of the credit union in promissory default proceedings.
Includes correspondence, articles of incorporation, and bylaws pertaining to the formation of an inner city alternative school. The Meeting was formerly known as the Center of Learning and operated the City School on Cedar Street in Minneapolis.
Correspondence, lobbying materials, discussion and issues papers, and printed materials pertaining to the implementation of the National Consumer Coop Bank Act. Also includes materials from a meeting held by the Upper Midwest Regional Bank Conference in Minneapolis on November 12, 1978.
Correspondence and district court case filings related to the incorporation of the association, the distribution of equity among shareholders, and the disputed applicability of the homestead tax exemption over the Chester Creek House at 1306 2nd Street in Duluth, Minn. The district court sustained the denial of the association's homestead application on the basis that residential eligibility was not equally divided among common and preferred shareholders.
Includes minutes, articles of incorporation, and bylaws.
Correspondence and legal instruments pertaining to the sale of a residence by Rosalie Butler to Castle Community Co-op Association. The sale of the property for communal purposes was unsuccessfully contested by a neighbor.
Included are articles of incorporation, bylaws and amendments, a 1949 plat map, a 1958 title abstract, correspondence, purchase agreements, and lists of lot owners. Also included are legal instruments regarding delinquent dues actions and tax lien foreclosures. Some of the information pertains to an early filing under a new nonprofit incorporation act regarding the processing of titles to abandoned property. Bruvold owned a lot on the lake and served as the Association's attorney.
Financial information and minutes concerning an agency that provided insurance for the Twin City Co-ops Credit Union. Bruvold was a trustee and president of the Agency.
Bruvold served as a director on the Supervisory Committee and as the credit union's attorney in defaulted loan actions.
Includes minutes, financial statments, operating procedures, and annual reports for 1964 and 1965.
Correspondence and documents related to the restatement of the cooperative's articles of incorporation.
Correspondence concerning the articles of incorporation, a transfer of shares, and related matters of a farm cooperative in southeast Minnesota that grew and marketed organic crops. The cooperative also tried to establish a credit union.
The miscellaneous files consist of both subject and case files that document Bruvold's activities in areas other than pacifism and the cooperative movement. The majority of the miscellaneous files are case related files. These include a file index, adoption and guardianship proceedings, protesters who demonstrated against a commercial restaurant franchise, controlled substance arrests, a tenant-landlord rent control dispute, a college tenure appeal, and resistance to the incorporation of the Village of Coon Rapids. Subject oriented files include materials pertaining to a bond fund established for Minnesotans who participated in civil rights marches in Mississippi and newsletters from a pacifist who worked with an aid agency in Laos.
Includes information pertaining to miscellaneous legal cases as well as the 25-year reunion of the Roosevelt High School class of 1935.
Correspondence with Robert Paul of the editorial staff concerning contracts for magazine articles and grant awards that Bruvold drew for the magazine. Also includes the magazine's 1978 financial statement.
Includes correspondence and legal instruments pertaining to a co-ownership buy and sell agreement.
Legal instruments pertaining to Bruvold's representation of individuals opposed to the incorporation of the Village of Coon Rapids.
Contains both numerical file and alphabetical name indices to the legal cases Bruvold handled.
Correspondence and consultative notes regarding a controlled substance charge.
Arrest complaints and correspondence related to controlled substance charges.
Correspondence and court documents related to Bruvold's suit against the project for payment of legal services.
Newsletters and reports from Rod MacRae while working at a teachers training school in Pakse, Laos. Also includes correspondence concerning Bruvold's rejected application for service in Laos.
Includes district court hearing transcripts and a petition to the state supreme court regarding an adoption case.
Consultative notes and court documents regarding juvenile proceedings against Madson for participating in a demonstration against the Red Barn Restaurant.
Correspondence and financial information regarding a fund created to help pay the bonds of six Minnesotans arrested in Jackson, Mississippi on June 11, 1961.
Case file pertaining to a rent control action by a tenant against his landlord.
Correspondence and court documents related to an adoption case.
Notes, correspondence, and a probate court petition concerning guardianship.
Correspondence and district court filings related to a demonstration against and opposition to the construction of a Red Barn Restaurant in the Dinkytown community of Minneapolis.
Notes, correspondence, and agreements pertaining to the purchase of land for the purpose of a residential development.
Includes the transcript of a trial held before the State College Board concerning the decision of the president of St. Cloud State College not to renew Stach's professor's contract.
Correspondence and documents regarding an automotive corporation.
Court documents and correspondence regarding White's charge of trespass against Northern States Power Company.
Court documents and correspondence concerning actions in a job termination case.
Correspondence with Roderick MacRae regarding the incorporation of a foundation whose purposes were to preserve a wilderness tract of land and to provide educational camping facilities and outdoor experiences for children.
Includes partnership agreements, articles of incorporation, and stockholders meeting materials.
Briefs from the cases of Brix v. General Accident & Assurance Co., Sander v. Minneapolis Municipal, and Rosvall v. Provost, all argued by Bruvold before the Minnesota Supreme Court.