On August 18, a Minnesota district court handed down a ruling that will come as no surprise to anyone who watched how Democrats acted during the 2024 legislative session. Judge Leonardo Castro ruled that Democrats violated the Minnesota Constitution by including a ban on binary triggers in the gargantuan, 1,400-page omnibus bill they created and rushed into law in the waning minutes of the session.
Judge Castro’s opinion also highlighted just how reckless and disgraceful the process was. He described the bill by saying “all bounds of reason and restraint seem to have been abandoned.”
While he severed only the binary trigger ban in line with Supreme Court precedent, his words left little doubt that bill trampled on the Constitution and many of its other provisions are likely vulnerable to the same challenge.
Minnesota’s Constitution is clear: Article IV, Section 17 says no law shall embrace more than one subject. It prevents legislators from jamming dozens upon dozens of provisions, many of which are unpopular, into larger must-pass bills. Every proposal should stand on its own merits. Citizens need to know what is in these bills, and the lawmakers who represent them must know exactly what they are voting on.
It exists to protect the citizens of this state from the very abuse from power-hungry politicians that Democrats carried out in 2023 and 2024. In the closing hours of the session, they took what was originally a 148-page tax bill and inflated it into a 1,400-page monstrosity. It contained everything from tax changes and paid leave to abortion mandates, Uber and Lyft rules, motorcycle lane filtering, and the binary trigger ban that the District Court struck down.
Most members had little or no opportunity to even read the bill. Hard copies were not available. Online versions were not ready. But it didn’t matter much because Democrats refused to allow debate, refused to allow amendments, and forced immediate votes to jam their entire wish list into law. There was no regard for rules, process, or the voices of millions of Minnesotans.
Republicans warned what they did was unconstitutional. The courts have confirmed it.
Now it’s up to Minnesotans to challenge each piece of the bill, one lawsuit at a time, in order for justice to be truly served. That is the costly and chaotic legacy of what Democrats chose to do.
Hopefully this ruling will serve as a wake-up call. The people of this state deserve better than what they got from the Democrats when they had total control of government. They deserve transparency, accountability, and respect for the Constitution.