The 2025 Minnesota legislative battle shifted to the courts Wednesday.
Minnesota Democrats sue House Republicans over ‘unlawful’ session
Republicans have maintained their actions are lawful, including the election of Lisa Demuth as House speaker.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 15, 2025 at 7:23PM
Minnesota House Democrats and Secretary of State Steve Simon filed petitions with the state Supreme Court challenging Republicans’ move to convene and elect a speaker on the first day of session Tuesday when no DFLers were present. They’ve asked the court to declare the House GOP’s actions invalid, a move that would likely force the two parties back into power-sharing negotiations.
“Republicans are going to extreme and unprecedented lengths to seize power that the voters did not give them, and Democrats will fight their unlawful, unconstitutional actions every step of the way,” House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman said in a statement.
At issue in both petitions is what constitutes a quorum in the House. Democrats argue that 68 members of the 134-member chamber must be present to do any business, and there’s no precedent of a quorum with fewer members.
Republicans have a temporary 67-66 edge in the House pending a special election for a likely blue Roseville-area seat at the end of January. Democrats boycotted the first day of session to prevent Republicans from getting a quorum, but GOP lawmakers proceeded with business anyway, including electing Rep. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, as speaker.
House Republicans continued to do business without any Democrats present on Wednesday, holding another floor session and some committee meetings. They’ve argued that 67 members constitute a quorum since the chamber is currently at 133 members pending the Roseville special election.
“There is ample precedent in the Minnesota Supreme Court and from the framers of Minnesota’s constitution regarding quorum,” Demuth said in a statement responding to the lawsuits. “We look forward to defending the House from this attack on our Constitutional separation of powers, and to ensuring the Minnesota House continues its important work on behalf of Minnesotans who elected us to show up and do our jobs.”
House Democrats' lawsuit says Republicans elected a speaker and a presiding officer “in blatant disregard of the Minnesota Constitution” and asked the court to declare their actions unlawful.
Simon, a Democrat who was required to serve as the initial presiding officer over the House on Tuesday, ruled the chamber didn’t have a quorum and immediately adjourned.
“The constitution requires that the House have 68 members to transact business, and state law dictates that the Secretary remain the House’s presiding officer until it elects a speaker,” reads the petition from Simon’s office. “Because the House has not yet had a quorum, the Secretary remains the House’s presiding officer and Representative Demuth does not currently have authority to serve as speaker.”
Republicans have challenged Simon’s role as presiding officer on the first day of session. Demuth said Simon’s participation is ceremonial only and a member of the executive branch doesn’t have authority over proceedings in the House.
After Simon left the rostrum, Republicans picked Rep. Paul Anderson, R-Starbuck, to preside over the chamber. The Secretary of State’s petition says law permits the House’s “oldest present member” to preside in his absence, but Simon was still physically present in the House after he adjourned the chamber. Simon sat near the rostrum on the House floor until Republicans concluded their business.
Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said the Secretary of State doesn’t have the constitutional authority to “interfere” with the operations of the House or to “unilaterally” adjourn the chamber.
“He was validly removed as the presiding officer under our constitutional authority to choose a presiding officer,” Niska said. “He chose to leave.”
Separate special election suit
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday from the state Republican Party and is weighing whether Gov. Tim Walz prematurely called a special election to fill the Roseville-area House seat.
The GOP is seeking to delay the special election, which would prolong the party’s one-seat advantage in the House. A delay could possibly lengthen the House DFL’s boycott; Hortman said House Democrats planned to return to the Capitol on Feb. 3, after the special election presumably returns the chamber to a tie.
“We will make our decision as soon as we can,” Chief Justice Natalie Hudson told the parties, including state GOP lawyer Ryan Wilson and James Dickey, an attorney for the conservative Minnesota Voters Alliance. The justices vigorously questioned lawyers for both sides, including assistant attorney general Nathan Hartshorn, who argued in defense of the governor’s decision.
Last month, Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro invalidated DFLer Curtis Johnson’s election, saying the candidate didn’t live in the district he sought to represent. Johnson owns a home outside the district in Little Canada, but rented an apartment in Roseville during the campaign.
Johnson resigned the seat on Dec. 27, and that same day, Walz issued a writ setting a special election for Jan. 28. The window for candidates to file to run for the seat closed at 5 p.m. on Dec. 31.
The GOP and the Voters Alliance filed the court challenge, arguing, in part, that Johnson couldn’t resign a seat that he didn’t legally hold, and that the election shouldn’t have been called until the Legislature convened Tuesday and a vacancy was declared.
Wilson said Johnson’s decision “stretches the meaning of resign” given that he was ineligible and had yet to take the seat. Johnson won handily by 30 percentage points as he sought to succeed DFL state Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, who didn’t seek re-election.
Justice Gordon Moore told Wilson that he’s asking for a “very broad remedy” given that the election is “well under way” and voters have been voting for several days. “Shouldn’t we be concerned about voter confusion?” Moore asked.
Wilson responded that, “In the end, an unlawful election is an unlawful election,” and that ultimately the residents of the district were deprived of a full slate of potential candidates.
Hudson noted the pending challenges to the House actions Tuesday. “Obviously you’re aware there might be challenges to whether or not the House had the authority to do anything, how does that fit in?” she asked.
Wilson said the writ should have been issued after the House legally convened, not 18 days beforehand as Walz did.
The DFL candidate is highly likely to win the House seat so delaying the election is to the advantage of Republicans.
The Republican who successfully challenged Johnson’s residency, Paul Wikstrom, is running again. The DFL candidate is David Gottfried.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
U.S. regulators on Wednesday banned the dye called Red 3 from the nation's food supply, nearly 35 years after it was barred from cosmetics because of potential cancer risk.
