Good morning. Top off the coffee because we’ve got a lot to tell you.
A major legal showdown heads before the U.S. Supreme Court this morning. Justices will hear oral arguments in a case that will determine Donald Trump’s ballot standing in Colorado — and be a signal to other states weighing with challenges to the former president’s eligibility. The dispute centers on the 14th Amendment and whether alleged acts of insurrection apply to presidential candidates, or in this case a former president. A prior ruling in Colorado disqualified Trump from primary ballots there, but it was put on hold until the appeal is decided. You can listen to special live coverage of the arguments on MPR stations or stream it through mprnews.org or our mobile app.
In related news, the Minnesota Supreme Court has put out more detail explaining its November ruling that left Trump on Republican presidential primary ballots here. The bid to bar former President Trump from ballots has played out in several states, but Minnesota’s Supreme Court was among the first to decide the matter. Justices dismissed the case late last year, saying presidential primaries are party-run functions. But in a newly published opinion , the state Supreme Court said deciding to bar Trump from the ballot would require justices to use hypothetical information — Trump wouldn’t be the Republican nominee before the summer. Justices have not ruled out revisiting the topic if a case is filed ahead of the general election. In Wednesday’s opinion, the court writes, “History tells us that a lot may happen in this election between now and the national conventions. The dispute over whether former President Trump should be excluded from the 2024 general election ballot is too remote and hypothetical to be a ripe, justiciable controversy at this time.”
A first glimpse at early voting stats in Minnesota suggest the primary isn’t stirring much interest yet. Clay Masters reports that figures released by the Secretary of State’s office show that roughly 173,000 absentee and mail ballots were transmitted as of early February, but fewer than 10 percent of those have been sent back and marked accepted. Some of those lower numbers may be attributed to this only being Minnesota’s second primary (the state shifted from caucuses in 2020), but other states that have already had their presidential primary are also experiencing similar low turnouts. In Iowa, fewer than 15 percent of registered GOP voters caucused and turnout was also underwhelming in the first official contest for Democrats in South Carolina. Expect more updates on the voting trends as soon as today.
Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer-Labor Party filed a legal challenge that aims to strip the Legal Marijuana Now Party of its elevated status. DFL chair Ken Martin said the party came up short in 2022 and 2023 of meeting legal requirements for major parties, including failure to host the required number of local conventions. Dana Ferguson reports that in Minnesota, the DFL, the Legal Marijuana Now Party and the Republican Party all have major party status. This status provides benefits, including access to public campaign subsidies, automatic ballot access and an easier way for a party to invite national candidates to run in their elections. LMN Chair Dennis Schuller told MPR News the challenge amounted to harassment against the party.
Minnesota lawmakers are expected to give local governments and other organizations more time as they roll out a new state flag and seal. They are set to replace old ones in May barring a legislative veto. And state law currently gives a year from that date to phase out current emblems. Dana got an update from House Speaker Melissa Hortman yesterday. Hortman expects the new designs will stick. But legislators will debate whether public groups that use the flag and seal on uniforms, letterhead or other areas should get extra time to transition. “I think we wouldn't want anybody to throw things away that are perfectly good. So I could see us extending the time period, and people should just use things until they’re used up and gone, and then switch to the new flag when they're ready to buy new stuff.” Republicans plan to make the flag switchover a legislative and campaign issue this year, arguing many people in the state don’t want to abandon the current versions.
Legislative leaders from the same party aren’t always on the same page. But House Speaker Melissa Hortman said she's looking forward to working with new Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy beginning next week. Dana sends along this dispatch: The two served as assistant majority leaders under former House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, "so we have a great relationship," Hortman said. Hortman said she's confident that Murphy can put aside some of her own preferences and focus on what the caucus wants, as well as break up conflict. "Erin Murphy has a very pastoral personality. She's a nurse — one of the people who put care in health care — so I have every confidence she'll be able to do that pastoral part of the job." Hortman added that she’s “heartsick” over the recurrence of former Senate leader Kari Dziedzic’s cancer and wished her a swift recovery.
The school resource officer issue that commanded attention in the late summer and early fall will be among the first items considered in the upcoming session. DFL lawmakers whose change to state law caused a backlash are now promoting a proposal they say will clarify lingering issues around the controversial use of prone restraint techniques to subdue students in schools. As MPR’s Elizabeth Shockman and Dana Ferguson report , the proposed legislative fix would keep the ban on school employees using holds that restrict students’ ability to breathe or communicate distress, except “to prevent bodily harm or death.” But it would let school resource officers or security personnel employed by districts use those restraints and exempt them from liability. Concerns over the current law led some police departments to pull their officers from schools. Hearings are set for early next week.
A settlement in a lawsuit against insulin maker Eli Lilly should bring down the price of insulin for Minnesotans to $35 a month.The settlement filed in New Jersey federal court stems from a lawsuit by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office, which claimed the drugmaker set artificially high prices for their drugs. Two other lawsuits against insulin manufacturers Novo Nordisk and Sanofi are still pending. If approved by a judge, the settlement will last five years.
A prominent Feeding our Future figure alleges a Department of Education cover-up as part of a civil lawsuit she filed. Aimee Bock brought the allegations in a new counterclaim filed last week. The Education Department sued Bock and Feeding our Future a year ago, seeking to regain legal fees after the nonprofit sued the department in 2020 over stopped payments related to child nutrition programs. Bock said Education Department employees used burner phones, purposely misspelled words and mislabeled documents to conceal documents from being included in the 2020 case. The agency said it is asking a court to toss out Bock’s allegations, describing them as “simply the latest example of her abusing the court system to deflect attention from her own misconduct.” Bock is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages for emotional distress she says the agency caused. | 