House power struggle goes to Minnesota Supreme Court

House power struggle goes to Minnesota Supreme Court

House power struggle goes to Minnesota Supreme Court

It appears Republicans in the State House are pushing forward, despite the drama of the first day of the legislative session on Tuesday.

They elected a new House Speaker after Secretary of State Steve Simon adjourned the session for the day while the DFL members were boycotting.

Republicans convened another session of the Minnesota House on Wednesday, but it was anything but business as usual. There were 67 Republicans and zero Democrats in the chamber. Democrats continue to boycott the House floor sessions, claiming Republicans are conducting an illegal power grab.

They’ve now taken that case to the Minnesota Supreme Court in a petition asking for the court to immediately stop the House proceedings and rule on what constitutes a “quorum” in the Minnesota House. 

A petition from House DFL leaders says the Republican actions of claiming a quorum and electing a Republican House Speaker were “…were improper, unlawful, and without legal effect, and must be declared null and void…”

The petition goes on to say, “All of the actions taken after Secretary Simon adjourned the House, including (Rep. Lisa) Demuth’s election as Speaker of the House, were improper and unlawful.”

DFL lawmakers want the court to stop Republicans from taking any further actions while the quorum issue is adjudicated.

Both sides are confident the court will rule in their favor. Republicans say because there are 133 current legally elected state representatives, 67 votes is all they need for a quorum to elect a speaker and conduct business.

“The legislature gets to determine what its quorum rules are going to be,” Republican House Majority Leader Harry Niska said after opening day on Monday. “The legislature gets to decide what its internal rules are gonna be. The legislature gets to decide who its presiding officers are going to be. The secretary of state doesn’t get to control that.”

Former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman says the law is clear about a quorum being 68 members out of the usual House membership of 134. “Representatives Niska, Demuth and others who participated in the sham session violated Minnesota state law and ignored the constitutional requirements of quorum,” Hortman said.

Simon has also filed a petition with the court making the same arguments as DFL leaders, alleging that Republicans “lacked a constitutionally required quorum” when they elected Demuth Speaker.

Simon on Tuesday said state law requires 68 members to do business, but Republicans ignored that statement and elected Rep. Lisa Demuth as Speaker.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by Republicans earlier this month against Governor Tim Walz and Ramsey County.

Republicans say Walz broke election laws when he issued a special election for House District 40B, which is scheduled for Jan. 28. Republicans say the earliest the special election should happen is Feb. 5, because state law requires waiting 22 days after the session to make that decision.

This was sparked after Democrat Curtis Johnson was ruled ineligible to take office because he didn’t live in his district. This took House Democrats from 67 to 66 members.

House leaders address standoff

Both Senate and House leaders took the stage together in St. Paul on Wednesday for a meeting on session priorities, while answering questions from 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS’ chief political reporter Tom Hauser.

“Republicans showed up to work yesterday, the first day of the session ready to get to work,” said Demuth during the meeting.

She continued, saying, “We will continue conversations, our last conversation was 9 a.m. on the Capitol complex yesterday morning and I’m waiting for my phone to ring.”

Hortman replied, saying, “The last conversation we had on Tuesday I said we both have an obligation to the rest of Minnesota to keep talking no matter how irritated we might be at each other right now.”

Hortman added she thinks a breakthrough will happen relatively soon.