Prior to that, Latimer worked as a lawyer on the freedom of the press dispute that ultimately resulted in the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Near v. Minnesota.
Published by Jay M. Near and Howard A. Guilford and known for its anti-Semitism, anti-Communism and propensity to attack supposedly corrupt local officials such as mayor George E. Leach and police chief Frank W. Brunskill, The Saturday Press was a ripe target for Minnesota's new Public Nuisance Law of 1925.
Also known as the "Minnesota Gag Law," the statute provided permanent injunctions against those who published, sold, distributed, or had in their possession any "malicious, scandalous and defamatory newspaper.
While Latimer was hardly a partisan of The Saturday Press, he did sympathize with their cause and was - as Near v. Minnesota chronicler Fred Friendly would later put it - "a kind of self-appointed Legal Aid Society.
While still abiding by that order in that they ceased publication, they argued that the temporary injunction was unconstitutional and did "not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action" on the part of the court.
The latter comment was an ironic reference to a recent editorial in the influential Minneapolis Tribune, which had railed against the lack of press freedom in Benito Mussolini's Italy yet supported the Public Nuisance Law.
As Friendly would later note, "By demurring, Latimer had opened the door for appeal, and by certifying the case, Judge Baldwin had kept the litigation alive..."[8] The case came before the Minnesota Supreme Court on April 28, 1928, at which time Latimer argued that the Public Nuisance Law violated the Minnesota constitution and was "null, void, and invalid, being in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
However more powerful forces would soon pick up the fight against Minnesota's Public Nuisance Law (including the American Civil Liberties Union and the publisher of the Chicago Tribune) and take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
[10] The Supreme Court, in what is widely hailed as a critical victory for freedom of the press, ultimately ruled that the Public Nuisance Law was unconstitutional.
Though more liberal than his Republican predecessor A. G. Bainbridge, Latimer partially continued the antilabor policies of the city police and also adopted a more restrictive approach toward welfare spending.
Minneapolis Communists in the Popular Front faction of the Farmer-Labor party also found themselves in opposition to Latimer after he joined the Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky, the exiled Soviet politician and staunch opponent of Stalin and the Comintern.
His political future had been endangered as a result of the police actions, and Latimer "dared not offend labor further," as Floyd B. Olson's biographer George Mayer noted.
Latimer attempted to broker a resumption of negotiations, but the unwillingness of company officials to compromise (combined with the unified front put up by labor in the city) made that impossible.
Latimer sought re-election, but more left-wing elements of the party associated with the Popular Front had gained control of the Hennepin County Farmer-Labor Alliance.
Hesli noted that she thought she could remember the Bible from her teenage years living with her sister, mother, and Latimer in Minneapolis, however she had no idea how it ended up in a pile of old books in California.