
The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Friday evening that Gov. Tim Walz prematurely called a special election to fill a vacancy in House District 40B.
“Under Minn. Stat. §204D.19, subd. 4, the writ of special election for House District 40B was issued prematurely and therefore must be quashed,” the court unanimously ruled.
James Dickey, an Upper Midwest Law Center attorney who represented some of the petitioners in the case, said they “brought this case forward because it is always worth it to uphold the rule of law.”
“Today’s ruling reinforces that no politician is above the law—period,” he commented.
The case began in late December when a Ramsey County judge found that Democrat Curtis Johnson, who won election to House District 40B, did not actually live in the district and was therefore ineligible to take the oath of office.
This shattered the expected 67-67 tie in the state House, gave Republicans (at least temporarily) a one-seat advantage, and ended talks of a power-sharing agreement between the two parties.
Walz then issued a writ of special election on Dec. 27 after Johnson indicated that he wouldn’t challenge the judge’s ruling, setting the election for Jan. 28—two weeks into the start of the legislative session.
The Minnesota Voters Alliance and the Republican Party of Minnesota then filed a lawsuit against Walz, saying his writ of special election was “rushed and unlawful.”
Meanwhile, House Democrats followed through on their plans to boycott the legislative session in the absence of a power-sharing agreement in an attempt to deny Republicans a quorum. But Republicans say their 67 members constitute a quorum and proceeded to elect a speaker and organize the House on their own, which is the subject of another lawsuit.
Democrats believe they will easily win the District 40B special election and thus expected to return to the Capitol after Jan. 28 with an equal number of representatives as Republicans.
But Friday’s Supreme Court ruling said “a writ of special election could not issue until sometime after the start of the legislative session, which began on January 14, 2025, with the specific date for the writ’s issuance depending on any actions by the House.”
“The writ of special election for House District 40B, issued on December 27, 2024, is quashed as having been issued prematurely,” the court said.
The statute governing the timing of the special election writ in this case states the following:
“If a vacancy results from a successful election contest, the governor shall issue 22 days after the first day of the legislative session a writ calling for a special election unless the house in which the contest may be tried has passed a resolution which states that it will or will not review the court’s determination of the contest. If the resolution states that the house will not review the court’s determination, the writ shall be issued within five days of the passage of the resolution.”
On Tuesday, the first day of session, Republicans did adopt a resolution stating that the House accepts the court’s findings “without further review.” Hence, Walz can—and “shall”—issue a new writ of special election within five days of Tuesday. But if he were to do so, then he would be recognizing the legitimacy of the GOP-organized House.
If he doesn’t, then he would have to wait 22 days from Tuesday before even calling a new special election.
House Majority Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, urged Gov. Walz to call a new special election immediately.
“The residents of District 40B deserve representation as soon as possible, and Gov. Walz should issue a writ of special election immediately. The Minnesota House passed a resolution on January 14 which allows the governor to take action within 5 days—his failure to do so would prevent the writ from being issued until February 5, leaving voters in 40B without representation until March at the earliest,” Niska said in a statement Friday night.
“It’s time for Democrats to put an end to their political posturing, show up for work, and move quickly to ensure this seat is filled as quickly as possible so these voters have a voice again at the Capitol.”
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