HISTORY TOPICS
Rosalie E. Wahl
Rosalie Wahl was born Sara Rosalie Ervin on August 27, 1924, in Gordon, Kansas. Growing up in the Depression era, Wahl experienced tremendous personal hardship that forever changed her life. In 1949, Wahl, along with her husband and children, moved to Minnesota to live within an intentional community. The community never took off and the family soon took permanent residence in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. In 1962, at the age of 38 and "tired of sitting outside doors waiting for the men inside to make the decisions," Wahl entered the William Mitchell School of Law. After graduation she immediately began to work for the state as an assistant public defender. In 1973, she accepted a professorship at William Mitchell where she directed the clinical legal education program. In 1977 Governor Rudy Perpich appointed Wahl to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Wahl's appointment was significant as she was the first woman jurist to sit on the state's highest court. While on the Supreme Court, Wahl served as its liaison to the Court's Study Commission on the Mentally Disabled and also chaired its task forces on gender fairness and racial bias. Wahl remained on the court for seventeen years until she retired in 1994 at the mandatory age of 70.
GET STARTED WITH SECONDARY SOURCES:
- "Index of the Decisions of Justice Rosalie Wahl."
In William Mitchell Law Review, vol. 21, no. 1 (fall 1995): pp. 29-43.
MHS call number: K27 .I53 v.21 - Minnesota Women in Politics: Stories of the Journey,
by Billie Young and Nancy Ankeny.
St. Cloud, Minn.: North Start\ Press of St. Cloud, 2000.
MHS call number: Reading Room HQ 1391 .M6 Y68 2000 - "Rosalie Wahl's Vision for Legal Education: Clinics at the Heart,"
by Ann Juergens.
In William Mitchell Law Review, vol. 30, no. 1 (2003): pp. 9-34.
MHS call number: K27.155 v.30:1 - original journal.
MHS call number: KFM5925.W35 J83 2003 - offprint of the article. - The Social Justice, Legal and Judicial Career of Rosalie Erwin
Wahl, complied by the staff of the Minnesota State Law Library;
Marvin Roger Anderson, editor; Susan K. Larson, assistant editor.
St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota State Law Library, 2000.
MHS call number: KFM 5925. W35 S62 2000. - Three Paths to Leadership: A Study of Women on the Minnesota
Supreme Court, by Christine Krueger.
St. Paul, Minn.: Hamline University Press, 1994.
MHS call number: KFM 5925. K78 1994. - "A Tribute to Justice Rosalie E. Wahl." "A Tribute,"
by C. Paul Jones; "Biography," by Jessica Lipsky Roe; "Breaking New Ground,"
by Jessica Lipsky Roe.
In William Mitchell Law Review, vol. 20, no. 4 (fall 1994): pp. 1008-1031.
MHS call number: K27 .I53 v.20. - "A Tribute to Rosalie E. Wahl." Individual tributes
by Hon. A.M. Keith, Hon. M. Jeanne Coyne, Hon. Esther M. Tomljanovich,
Hon. Jim Ramstad, Hon. Harriet Lansing, Dean James F. Hogg, Douglas Heidenreich,
Roger S. Haydock, Amy K. Adams.
In William Mitchell Law Review, vol. 21, no. 1 (fall 1995): pp. 1-28.
MHS call number: K27 .I53 v.21. - Minnesota History index terms that may be useful for this topic:
Wahl, Rosalie
WRITINGS BY ROSALIE WAHL:
- "Introductory Remarks" [to the Minnesota Supreme Court Task Force on Racial Bias in the Judicial System Report], by Rosalie E. Wahl.
In Hamline Law Review, vol. 16, no. 3 (spring 1993): pp. 475-475.
MHS call number: K8 .A55 v.16. - "Lest We Forget: Celebrating Thirty Years of Clinical Legal Education at William Mitchell College of Law," by Rosalie Wahl.
In William Mitchell Law Review, vol. 30, no. 1 (2003): pp. 5-8.
MHS call number: K27.155 v.30:1. - "Some Reflections on Women and the Judiciary," by Rosalie E. Wahl.
In Law & Inequality, vol. 4, no. 1 (May 1986): pp. 153-157.
MHS call number: HQ 1391 .M6 W35 1986.
PRIMARY RESOURCES:
- Rosalie Wahl Papers
This archival collection (1958-1998) contains personal papers from the judicial chambers of Rosalie Wahl. Included are biographical information; speeches and writings; files regarding her Supreme Court appointment, elections, opinions, and committee work; subject files; and materials related to legal education.
Restriction: Access to portions of the collection requires written permission; contact a librarian for more details.
MHS call number: See the green "Alpha" Manuscripts Notebooks—filed under Wahl, Rosalie—for a detailed list of boxes (there are 17 boxes), or use an electronic version of the inventory. - Supreme Court Justices Oral History Project
This collection (1988) contains oral history interviews of the Minnesota Supreme Court justices. Justices, including Rosalie E. Wahl, discuss their family background, their careers in the field of law, the judicial process, their work, and memorable cases on the Supreme Court. The Wahl interview was also recorded on VHS videotapes that are cataloged as part of the Rosalie Wahl Papers.
MHS call number: OH 70; see the blue Oral History Notebooks for interview description sheets (there are six 60-minute cassettes and four 90-minute cassettes).
- Newspapers that may be useful for this topic:
- Minneapolis Star-Tribune (indexes for articles published in 1971 or after are located in the Hubbs Microfilm Room)
- St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch (an index for articles published in 1967 or after is located in the Hubbs Microfilm Room).
- Visual Resources Database subjects that may be useful for this topic:
- Check the library catalog for other materials.
