It was a busy and crowded day in downtown St. Paul today. The Second Judicial District Court (Ramsey County) took up the petitions for temporary funding of core functions in the event of a government shutdown.

As a reminder, Lori Swanson, in her official capacity as Attorney General of the State of Minnesota filed in the Second Judicial District Court the initial documents in the following matter on June 13th, 2011. The title of the case is:

62-CV-11-5203
In Re Temporary Funding of Core Functions of the Executive Branch of the State of Minnesota

If you love to read legal documents, all of the petitions and motions for this hearing (including the amicus we filed) are posted in the order they were filed on the court’s website.

Presiding over the court was Chief Judge Kathleen R. Gearin, who was elected in 1986, 1992, 1998, 2004, and 2010. She has been the Chief Judge since 2008. Her current term expires Jan. 2017.

Judge Gearin ruled against the Governor's motion to appoint a mediator and the motion to intervene that was made by four senators. The first ruling was jurisdictional mainly. The second ruling was made because late yesterday the Senate and House filed their own motions. A few other motions to intervene were debated next (there were many filed at the last minute), before the main debate about core services began.

The Judge will likely be ruling Friday on the question of whether she should grant the attorney general's petition to appoint a special master who will determine payments for core services.

As soon as the judge rules we will let members know.

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In another court a few miles away, a very important decision was made late on June 22. The Supreme Court of Minnesota dismissed the action brought by four Republican senators which questioned the authority of the district court, the attorney general and the governor on mostly constitutional grounds. Petitioners challenged the authority of the Ramsey County District Court to order expenditures from the state treasury in the absence of a legislative appropriation, as requested by the attorney general. Petitioners also challenged the authority of the district court to order mediation between the governor and the legislature concerning the budget, as requested by the governor in the same Ramsey County case. The Association had petitioned the Supreme Court, just in case, and we were referenced in the decision to deny the petition. This was clearly an important “win” for us at this stage of legal wrangling:

“. . . We conclude based on the record before us that the petition does not satisfy the standards we have established for the exercise of our original jurisdiction over a petition for a writ of quo warranto. See Rice v. Connolly, 488 N.W.2d 241, 244 (Minn. 1992) (“While this court retains its original jurisdiction pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 480.04 (1990), we today signal our future intention to exercise that discretion in only the most exigent of circumstances.”). Accordingly, we dismiss the petition without prejudice. . . . IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the motion of Aging Services of Minnesota and Care Providers, Inc., for leave to file a brief as amici curiae be, and the same is, denied as moot.”

Patti Cullen, CAE
952.851.2487
pcullen@careproviders.org