Tilsen represented Thomas Coleman, the owner of a parking lot on a block in downtown St. Paul slated for condemnation as part of the Capital Centre urban renewal project (Project R-20) in the late 1960s. The case revolved around whether the city exceeded its authority in seeking to condemn a blighted area that was not a slum. The files include press clippings, pleadings, and an extensive series of both petitioner's and respondent's exhibits. The exhibits provide a detailed picture of the area at the time, including numerous photographs, plans, charts, and reports on the conditions of buildings on the blocks in the proposed development area.

In this case the plaintiffs, represented by Tilsen, alleged that their right to participate in the 1968 presidential nominating process was infringed by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party. The plaintiffs argued that the DFL's geographic-, rather than population-based ("one man, one vote") system of apportioning delegates unfairly weighted the vote in favor of rural districts. Materials in the files include press clippings, pleadings, and a hearing transcript.

This trial, also known as the Morrill Hall case, accused three students involved in a January 1969 protest at the University of Minnesota in which Morrill Hall, an administration building, was the scene of a sit-in by members of the University's Afro-American Action Committee. The students demanded a black studies department, financial support for a black conference, and black control of the University's Martin Luther King Scholarship Fund. The University attempted to charge three black student leaders with responsibility for the damage which occurred during the student occupation.

Records relating to Tilsen's defense of these students are less complete than many of the other cases in the collection, but do include correspondence, pleadings, instructions to the jury, and trial notes. Also included is a report prepared by a University committee formed immediately after the incident and charged with pulling together a factual account of the demonstration and the events which led to it. This report includes useful background information on the organizations involved and the context in which the protest took place.

Tilsen represented members of the Seminole Nation Treaty People, a group of Seminole Indians who attempted to demand payment from three railroads for use of right-of-way through land they believed ceded to the Seminole Nation by several 19th century treaties. Following the delivery of a written ultimatum demanding $217,580 in November of 1975 and a subsequent suspicious fire on a Santa Fe Railroad bridge, Johnson Warledo and five other individuals were accused of conspiracy, extortion, and possession of firearms.

This case focused on the Honeywell Project, an anti-war group organized to protest the production of anti-personnel mines and other weapons headed for Vietnam by Honeywell. Tilsen, representing the Honeywell Project, attempted to prove that Honeywell and the FBI had conspired to violate the constitutional rights of the protesters by infiltrating the Honeywell Project, keeping dossiers on its members, and disrupting their activities. After an eight-year legal battle, a settlement favorable to the Honeywell Project was reached in 1985.

One of the more extensively documented cases in the collection, files include press clippings, correspondence, a comprehensive series of pleadings, briefs, orders, and other court documents from throughout the eight-year span of the case, several depositions by key Honeywell and FBI executives, and a large series of discovery materials containing information gathered by Honeywell and the FBI on the Honeywell Project during the 1960s and 1970s. The files also include two videos of 1970 Honeywell meetings at which the Honeywell Project members protested.

Tilsen defended Paul Sobocinski, a leader of the farm activist group Groundswell, when he was arrested during a farm foreclosure sale protest. Sobocinski was accused of obstructing a legal process after he and other members of Groundswell attempted to prevent the auctioning of a foreclosed farm at the Otter Tail County (Minnesota) courthouse in July 1985. Tilsen won the case on appeal, but materials in the collection document only the first trial, during which Sobocinski was convicted.

This case concerns the attempt by the Minnesota House of Representatives to expel Representative Randolph ("Randy") Staten, then the state's only black legislator. Following a misdemeanor conviction for writing bad checks and censure by the Ethical Practices Board of failing to comply with the state's campaign reporting law, in March of 1986 the Rules Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives recommended that Staten be expelled. Tilsen provided counsel for Staten in connection with matters before the legislature, successfully preventing the expulsion on condition that Staten refrain from running in the next election. Tilsen also represented him in an (unsuccessful) appeal by the State to change his misdemeanor to a felony conviction.

Materials in these files concern both Staten's criminal convictions and the subsequent hearings and repercussions in the House of Representatives, though neither are documented extensively. The proceedings of the Select Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives are the most thoroughly documented aspect of this case. Press clippings on this case refer almost exclusively to this event. Transcripts, as well as carefully indexed sound recordings, of Staten's hearing before the Select Committee are also included.

Minnesota 33% filed suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1986 when members were refused permission to set up non-partisan voter registration tables at a surplus commodity distribution center in Anoka County, Minnesota. The case revolved around interpretation of USDA regulations that are meant to prohibit any activities that may lead the recipients of goods to believe that registering to vote, voting, or being eligible to vote are preconditions to receiving food or commodities. Tilsen represented Minnesota 33%, Paul Wellstone, and Boyd Shepard Lebow in the case, which was eventually resolved by the parties involved. Files include pleadings and orders, unused affidavits, materials relating to Paul Wellstone's voter registration-related activities, legal research, and a small amount of correspondence.

These cases were just a few of many legal disputes that erupted when United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local P-9 members, all employees of the Hormel meat-packing plant in Austin, Minnesota, were ordered by the UFCW International to cease a strike that had initially been authorized. When the Local refused to end its strike as ordered, the International placed the Local in trusteeship.

Tilsen's cases concern a dispute between the Local P-9 and Joseph Hansen, the trustee appointed for the Local P-9 by the International in May 1986. Much of the dispute focused on control of the Local P-9's headquarters, the Austin Labor Center, which was run by a separate corporation, the Austin Labor Center, Inc., and the corporation's assets. The trustee also brought suit against James Guyette and other former officers of the Local P-9, accusing them of violating court orders by obstructing the trustee from taking control of assets. Tilsen represented the Austin Labor Center, Inc. and the Local P-9 members in these cases, which were eventually dismissed or settled after more than two years of legal wrangling. Files consist primarily of a chronological series of pleadings, affidavits, orders, and other court documents. In addition the series includes correspondence, interrogatories, and research files. The correspondence files include color snapshots of the Austin Labor Center mural, which was destroyed by vandals during the legal dispute.

In this case Tilsen represented a group of Native Americans and ranchers in a 1987 fight against plans by Honeywell, Inc. to build a test range for weapons in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. The proposed munitions site was known as Honeywell Ordnance Proving Ground II, or HOPG II. The protesting group, known as the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, argued that the weapons testing would harm the fragile canyon environment, threaten land values, usurp prime grazing land, and desecrate an area held holy by the Dakota. Files include press clippings, correspondence, pleadings, orders, and other court documents. Although never officially used, the affidavits provide a helpful insight into the type of testimony presented by witnesses. The materials on this case also include a fairly extensive series of research files which document the varying grounds on which the plaintiffs protested the installation of HOPG II.

The SLAM cases were one of the most extensive and significant of Tilsen's career. The conflict had its beginnings in 1974 when the United Power Association (UPA) and Cooperative Power Association (CPA) announced plans to jointly construct a new electricity generation complex, known as the Coal Creek Project, near Underwood, North Dakota and to run a 436-mile transmission line across the state of Minnesota to a converter station near Delano. Over the course of nearly a decade concerned citizens fought the planned construction, both in the courts and in the fields, arguing that the power line would endanger animal and human health, unfairly take away productive agricultural land, and interfere with the farming of adjacent land. Despite a 1977 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling in favor of the power cooperatives, many opponents continued to protest the power line, resulting in continued legal challenges, protests, and even vandalism. UPA reported sixteen towers were toppled and thousands of insulators were shot out during the course of construction.

The Southern Landowners Alliance of Minnesota was formed in 1979 to fight the "Wilmarth" branch of the power line, extending from Delano to Mankato, Minnesota. Tilsen represented SLAM in a series of legal battles from 1979 to 1982 which argued that the 75-mile extension was essentially unnecessary and illegal. Unlike the earlier cases, which focused on proving the potential negative impact of the power lines on the local economy, environment, people, and livestock, Tilsen took a different tack, focusing on flaws in the process by which the power cooperatives gained approval for the project. Tilsen contended that the need for the power line had never been properly demonstrated, that the citizens affected were not properly informed about hearings, and that Minnesota Energy Agency and other agencies ignored key evidence and acted arbitrarily in granting approval to the project.

SLAM-related materials are organized into four major groups reflecting the stages of the dispute in which Tilsen was involved. The Pre-SLAM files, created and given to Tilsen by attorney George Duranske II, concern the construction of the central line and the protests and legal action, primarily in Pope and Stearns counties, that ensued. These materials, dating from 1974, when the protest first erupted, through 1979, provide background and context for the later SLAM cases. Included in this group are press clippings, correspondence, reports, and court documents from the District Court and Supreme Court cases.

Materials grouped under the title SLAM I document the legal battle against the Wilmarth line. The three major series of files within this group chronicle the first appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court (Supreme Court I), the subsequent hearing before a three-judge panel, and the final Minnesota Supreme Court appeal (Supreme Court II), ultimately requiring the Minnesota Energy Agency (MEA) to conduct new hearings (after giving proper notice) to determine the need for the power line. Also included are the pleadings and appellant proceedings from the original District Court cases in each of the counties affected. Newspaper clippings, dating from 1979 to 1980, provide a particularly helpful outline of events.

The SLAM II files document the new hearing ordered by the Minnesota Supreme Court, held in late October 1981. As a result of testimony presented at these hearings the state hearing examiner ruled that the Wilmarth line would not be needed to forestall an electricity shortage. Following this decision, the power cooperatives voted to withdraw their motion for construction and plans for the extension were subsequently abandoned. These hearings are the most comprehensively documented stage of the case in the collection. In addition to correspondence, pleadings, and other related court documents, the materials include an extensive collection of testimony filed by the power cooperatives, including a great deal of demographic and energy demand forecast data on the period from the 1970s to the 1990s.

SLAM III files concern (ultimately successful) efforts by Tilsen to claim attorney's fees from the power cooperatives. SLAM members represented by Tilsen during the fight to prevent construction of the Wilmarth line sought reimbursement under a statute which allows a landowner to recover attorney's fees and costs when land condemnation proceedings are dismissed or discontinued. Materials include press clippings, miscellaneous court documents, trial transcripts, and documentation of Tilsen's costs and hours spent on the litigation.

This case lasted twenty-five years and concerned the struggles of Rene Hurtado, an alias for Gonzalo de Jesus Larin-Lara, a former member of the El Salvadoran military police. Larin-Lara sought asylum in Minnesota after witnessing and speaking out against the civil war in his native country.