(WASHINGTON DC) – U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson has introduced a bill to name the Fergus Falls federal courthouse after Judge Edward Devitt.
"Judge Devitt had an exemplary judicial career and was a dedicated public servant," Peterson said. "His service to Minnesota spanned decades, from the Naval Reserves, to the U.S. House of Representatives, as an assistant attorney general and as a judge."
The late Judge Devitt, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, was appointed to the federal bench by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. He became chief judge in 1957 where he served until taking senior status in 1981. He passed away on March 2, 1992.
"Judge Devitt is the jurist most closely identified with the Federal Court House in Fergus Falls," said Minnesota Federal Court Chief Judge Michael Davis. "He served the people of west central Minnesota, and all of Minnesota, for many years and it is appropriate that we honor him in this way."
The bill's language says, "The United States courthouse located at 118 South Mill Street, in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, shall be known and designated as the ‘‘Edward J. Devitt United States Courthouse’’.
Devitt was born in St. Paul in 1911 and was elected municipal judge in East Grand Forks, Minn., in 1935, right out of University of North Dakota Law School. He served as an intelligence officer in the Navy during World War II, receiving the Purple Heart. He was elected to Congress from Ramsey County in 1946 but lost his seat to Eugene McCarthy in 1948. In 1950 he was elected Ramsey County Probate Judge until he was appointed to the federal bench in 1954.
He was coauthor of the three-volume "Federal Jury Practice," published by West, which sets the basic rules of how federal trial courts are to be run. He also presided over many high-profile trials including the 1961 racketeering trial of Minneapolis gangster Isadore (Kid Cann) Blumenfeld, the 1963 fraud trial of former Minneapolis Mayor Marvin Kline, and the Reserve Mining Co. environmental trial in the 1970s.
The Fergus Falls Federal Court House serves the Seventh Judicial Circuit and includes the counties of Becker, Benton, Clay, Douglas, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Otter Tail, Stearns, Todd and Wadena. The other Federal Court Houses in Minnesota are in St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth.