A conspiracy to commit insurrection in MN: slow-motion coup
We appear to be in the midst of a slow-motion coup here in the North Star State, all in the service of overturning the results of the state House of Representatives election held last November.
To recap: The state House normally has 134 members. But one Democrat perjured himself and was disqualified (District 40B), and a special election needs to be held to fill the seat. A second Democrat (District 54A) appears to have “won” by 14 votes, with 20 votes missing and presumed destroyed.
The 2025 state legislature is scheduled to get underway at noon on Tuesday (tomorrow, January 14). Or maybe not.
It seems certain that the state Senate will get going this week, currently in a 33-33 tie, with one vacancy to be filled by a special election later this month. Senators have agreed to an equal power-sharing deal in the meantime.
The biggest uncertainty lies in the state House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a one-seat 67-66 majority, with one vacancy (40B). Or perhaps a two-seat 67-65 majority, with the two vacancies (40B, 54A). mentioned above. It’s not clear.
Either way, MN Democrats are facing weeks, if not months, of life as the minority party in the state House. So, they say they will be boycotting daily sessions of the House until, at some future point, by winning special election(s), they can get back to a 67-67 parity with the Republicans.
House Democrats seem to think that a “delay” to the start of the session won’t do any lasting harm and will place them in a more favorable partisan position as a co-equal in the lower chamber. In the meantime, they say that “Democrats would still meet with constituents and work with staff to draft bills.”
We’ll get back to that idea momentarily.
At noon on Tuesday, the 94th Legislature of Minnesota will kick off. The numbering is more than just ceremonial. To use the analogy of a business corporation, at noon on Tuesday, the corporate entity known as the 93rd legislature will cease to exist, the corporation will have been dissolved.
The process that begins at noon on Tuesday is also more than just ceremonial. For a few minutes or even hours after noon, the House of Representatives will not exist in any legal sense. The process and procedures undertaken will conjure the 94th Legislature into being, ex nihilio. At the end of this multi-step process, the House of Representatives will be born anew, duly organized, with new membership, ready to conduct business for the people of Minnesota for the next two years.
So, what happens if the conjuring is interrupted in the middle? Can the spell be recast? What if the lifeless body of the 94th legislature isn’t animated on the 14th? We don’t know, this has never happened before, we are traveling through terra incognita.
This is where Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon (a Democrat) comes into the picture. State law (M.S. 3.05) assigns the secretary with the duty to call the House to order. The statute makes clear that it doesn’t have to be him, “the oldest member present” could serve this role.
Another law, (M.S. 5.05) states:
The secretary of state shall attend at the beginning of each legislative session, to call the members of the house of representatives to order and to preside until a speaker is elected.
The secretary is given this assignment for only a single day, every two years. After the call to order, the statute gives the secretary/oldest member the assignment to appoint a temporary clerk, who will call the roll. Along with the speaker election, that’s it, those are the only three tasks assigned by law, and just for that single day.
If a quorum is present (M.S. 3.06), then the House then would elect a whole host of officers, including a speaker and a sergeant-at-arms. But without a quorum, no officer elections would take place.
Without an elected Sergeant, there is no officer available, or empowered, to compel the attendance of absent members.
Democrats intend to boycott this session, specifically to avoid the election of a Republican Speaker.
After that, the law (M.S. 3.07) states,
Each house, after its organization, may appoint and at pleasure remove the employees provided for by its permanent rules or recommended by its Committee on Rules.
To restate, before the House organizes, it cannot have any employees. For those first few hours after noon on Tuesday, the House has no employees. So, this idea that, while waiting weeks to elect a speaker, Democrats “will work with staff” is factually mistaken. The House will employ no staff.
As for the elected no-show Democrats, they would not have answered the roll, they would not have been sworn in, and they would not yet be members of the body in a factual sense.
So, to overcome this limitation, Democrats held a secret swearing-in ceremony yesterday (Sunday) at the MN History Center in St. Paul. This ceremony was described by KSTP’s Tom Hauser on Twitter (X) as follows:
In an unprecedented action, House DFL members held a mass secret swearing in ceremony Sunday.
Peter Callaghan of MinnPost writes on Twitter (X) of the event as “the private and unpublicized oath-taking ceremony at History Center.” Reports have the oath being administered by a retired judge.
A published photo of this unholy rite looks like an outtake from the 1999 movie Eyes Wide Shut.
Needless to say, House Republicans dismiss this entire ritual as illegitimate. The Center’s Bill Walsh takes a look at the “precedent” (or lack thereof) for a premature, off-site swearing-in mass ceremony.
In justifying their pre-emptive actions, House Democrats cite the following goal:
Democrats are prepared to deny the 68-member quorum (sic) required to conduct House business
Somehow, Democrats twist a desire to pursue narrow, partisan, tactical advantages into an excuse for lawbreaking and dereliction of duty.
Unilaterally, Secretary Simon had issued a letter (available here) on Friday describing what he plans to do on Tuesday afternoon. Simon lays out an 8-item agenda for his temporary speakership on Tuesday, only the first two of which are authorized by statute. He plans to conclude by declaring that a quorum is not present. It appears that he has no plans to preside over a speaker election as required by 5.05.
Rather, he then intends to adjourn the House prematurely (which he has no power to do, unilaterally) and convene again at 3:30 the following day (which he has no power to do).
To justify his (in)actions, Simon cites a number of authorities, including the Rules of the House. Unfortunately, at this point in the proceedings, the House has no rules, just as it has no employees.
The last time the House convened for its organizing session was January 3, 2023. The Journal entry for that date shows (p. 7) that the adoption of temporary rules does not occur until after officers were elected. It is the adoption of temporary rules that call into life the committees.
Then, on page 16, the House was declared to be “duly organized pursuant to law.”
To recap, no quorum, no officers, no rules, no duly organized, no committees, no employees.
Republicans responded to Sec. Simon today with their own letter.
So, what next? To repeat, the presiding officer cannot just declare a meeting over. As a nonmember, Sec. Simon cannot even propose adjournment. So, if there is no adjournment, what will Simon do?
He could simply abandon the podium and walk away or be removed by a vote of the body assembled. As the meeting is still underway, the oldest member, or someone else, could assume the gavel and make a different ruling regarding the presence of a quorum.
The 67 members who were sworn in could then proceed to elect officers, adopt rules, establish committees, and hire employees.
What if the whole thing falls apart after the House convenes at noon, but before it reaches the “duly organized” stage? To restate, what if the House fails to organize on January 14? Does the body lie on the House Floor like a lifeless corpse? Can the corpse be animated (duly organized) on a later day?
Or would the 94th edition of the House be considered aborted? Would any fruits thereafter be tainted ab initio, for the failure to properly organize according to the law and the constitution?
The state constitution (Art. 4, Sec.13) has this to say about a 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.
So far, we’ve been arguing whether a majority means 68 or 67. But can a “smaller number” act if no quorum was ever established? Can the attendance of people be compelled if they never actually became members?
Republicans give their view of the situation on pages 2 to 3 of their letter to Simon. Simon replied late yesterday.
The Center’s own John Hinderaker provides his take over on his PowerLine blog.
To recap:
1). MN Secretary of State, and Democrat, Steve Simon presided over an error-ridden general election last November that will result in the need to hold either one or two special elections for House seats.
2). Democratic Gov. Tim Walz prematurely called for a special election in district 40B.
3). A retired state judge presided over a secret, unannounced, private, premature, “swearing-in” ceremony held at an unauthorized location.
4). As many as 66 past or potential future Democratic House members participated in this illegal ceremony.
This shadowy cabal appears to have engaged in a secessionist insurrection against the state constitution.
Some other state statutes to ponder:
609.385 Treason, defines the word “insurrection” to include the efforts by persons seeking to prevent “the execution of a statute of the state”
609.43 Misconduct of a public officer, includes an officer who “intentionally fails or refuses to perform a known mandatory, nondiscretionary, ministerial duty of the office”
609.44 Illegally assuming public office, “Whoever intentionally and without lawful right thereto, exercises a function of a public office”
609.475 Impersonating a public official, “Whoever falsely impersonates… [a] public official with intent to wrongfully obtain money”
609.48 Perjury, as committed by the Democratic candidate for House 40B.
At the Center, we are running a campaign to urge all House members to show up as required by law.
We’ll be following events at the state capitol live, tomorrow.