Hennepin County Attorney Mary F. Moriarty \u201986 received the 2026 President\u2019s Award for Meritorious Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Created in 2022, this prestigious award is bestowed solely by the president of the college to recognize the unique and exemplary work of members of the Macalester community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During Reunion 2026, Macalester President Suzanne M. Rivera announced the award and read from this citation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary, we honor you today for your courageous leadership, commitment to justice, and advocacy for the rights of Minnesotans in your role as Hennepin County Attorney.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Across your career, your vision for justice focuses on data, research, and community-centered structural change. After majoring in history and political science at Macalester, and graduating from the University of Minnesota Law School, you began working as a public defender in Hennepin County, encompassing Minneapolis and forty-four other cities. Twenty-five years later, you became the county’s chief public defender, and oversaw 140 attorneys and 45,000 cases per year. You helped guide and educate public defenders around the country on combating racial bias, making opening and closing arguments, and evaluating forensic evidence\u2014a topic on which you are a national expert. In 2022, you were elected Hennepin County Attorney, becoming the chief executive of Minnesota’s largest public law office.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n You understand keenly the power of using your voice to raise awareness and distill complex legal topics. Last March, you launched a podcast called “We Don’t Have to Choose,” on which you speak with experts about how to improve the legal system without compromising public safety. You engage in dialogue about why the current legal system doesn’t keep us safe, and frame reform as part of public safety, not two mutually exclusive goals. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n During the turmoil in Minnesota this winter caused by the federal government’s Operation Metro Surge, you stood up for Minnesotans with courage and valor, and you challenged narratives suggesting that federal agents have absolute immunity. As part of your office’s Transparency and Accountability Project, you’ve created public portals for residents to submit video footage and information about incidents that may involve unlawful conduct by federal agents, including after your office was denied access to evidence by federal investigators in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Those portals have generated more than one thousand community submissions. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In January, together with prosecutors from eight US cities, you launched the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach. This spring, your office filed a lawsuit against the federal government for access to evidence, then filed charges against two federal agents. Inspired by the community care you witnessed throughout the surge, you work tirelessly to seek justice amid turmoil. In your words: “We can stand up, we can stick together, we can care for each other, and we can speak out.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This winter, you generously shared your insights with more than six hundred Macalester alumni in a college webinar discussing immigration enforcement and the civic response\u2014then appeared right afterward on CNN, part of your tireless efforts to shine light on what was happening in Minnesota. As you explained in one interview: “We are in a crisis here, and people have to decide . . . what side of history they want to be on. I want to be on the side of history that says I fought back for democracy.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary, through your courageous advocacy and dedicated service, you have exemplified Macalester’s values. With deep gratitude, we are honored to bestow upon you the President’s Award for Meritorious Service.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Moriarty was recognized for her courageous leadership, commitment to justice, and advocacy for the rights of Minnesotans in her role as Hennepin County Attorney.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":881,"featured_media":32779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-newswire","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_link_url":"","custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","article_type":[8],"post_thumbnail_style":"default","flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_downloads":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32735"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32741,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32735\/revisions\/32741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}