Federal Judge Whose Reputation Ranged Beyond Minnesota Dies

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Miles Lord, a onetime federal judge in Minnesota who presided over a number of groundbreaking cases and spoke out against corporate abuses, has died.

Lord's daughter, Virginia Lord, said her father died Saturday in Eden Prairie. He was 97.

Lord served as Minnesota's attorney general and U.S. Attorney before being nominated as a federal judge in 1966 by President Lyndon Johnson.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who succeeded Lord as Minnesota's attorney general, tells the Star Tribune that Lord handled some "huge cases that reformed the law and set a new standard for judicial courage."

Lord was behind the bench for the Reserve Mining Co. taconite pollution case on the Minnesota Iron Range in the 1970s. He also presided over a well-publicized consumer lawsuit against the maker of the Dalkon Shield IUD.