January 14, 2025

Minnesota: the law is what Dems say it is

Minnesota. Land of a thousand lakes. Land of tampon dispensers in boy’s bathrooms. Land of a suddenly—and thankfully--invisible Tim Walz. Land of hating police and siccing the DOJ on them. Land of a violent, drug-addicted, felonious martyr. Land of Democrats/socialists/communist (D/s/cs) ignoring state and federal constitutions and making it up as they go. And now, land facing a constitutional crisis, as John Hinderaker at Powerline reports:

 

Minnesota is a purple state, balanced on a knife’s edge, as the 2024 election showed. There are 134 Minnesota House districts, and when the returns were in, it looked like Republicans had gained enough seats so that the House would be tied, 67-67. But then it came to light that one of the Democrats’ candidates had cheated: in House District 40B, Democrat Curtis Johnson falsely claimed to reside in the district, a constitutional requirement. 

D/s/c hold super majorities in Minnesota’s House and Senate, and they have Tim Walz. Not only was Johnson caught, amazingly, a D/s/c infested and controlled state judiciary uncharacteristically upheld the law and barred Johnson from taking office, setting up a special election for a future time unknown.

 

So currently there are 133 elected representatives holding election certificates: 67 Republicans and 66 Democrats. Republicans hold a majority, brought about by the fact that Democrats cheated and got caught.

The legislature is due to convene on Tuesday, January 14 and D/s/cs plan to boycott, so horrified are they over Republican control of the House. They’re not going to show up, because they think that will deny a quorum, effectively shutting down the legislature until they can figure out some way to regain the majority. Their problem—among many—is Article IV, Section 13 of the state Constitution:

 

Quorum. A majority of each house constitutes a quorum to transact business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day and compel the attendance of absent members in the manner and under the penalties it may provide.

Clearly, “a majority of each house” means bodies, not districts, so 67 republicans constitute a majority, which under the Minnesota Constitution is a quorum. Not only does the text of the Constitution support this commonsense interpretation, so does its drafting history:

 

 

 

During Minnesota’s Constitutional Convention, the question of what constitutes a quorum came up. The consensus was that the language, as now contained in Article IV, was clear:

Mr. Morgan: I conceive that the word “majority” means a majority of the members sworn in. … There can be no other meaning attached to it, for we frequently find ourselves without a quorum, which is, less than a majority of the members sworn in.

 

Based on that consensus, an amendment to the existing language was voted down.

Minnesota’s Republican legislators have been given a rare opportunity to change the face of Minnesota politics:

 

 

 

Minnesota law provides that legislators may be recalled from office for misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance. For a member of the legislature, deliberately not showing up for work is the ultimate nonfeasance, and trying to interfere with the ability of other legislators to do their jobs is malfeasance. Republicans are ready to file recall petitions against any Democrats who follow through on their threat to try to paralyze the legislature.