05/28/2026
The court ruled that one of the hundreds of bills crammed into a multi-subject omnibus bill could be removed because legislators violated the State's Constitution, which requires every bill to be a single subject. Yet, the court won't overturn the whole omnibus bill, allowing hundreds of bad bills, industry handouts, and bills that could never pass on their own merits, to remain in law. Omnibus bills protect lazy legislators from being held to account for their votes. Omnibus bills prevent transparency in government. The whole bill needs to be scrapped, rather than the public having to spend a hundred thousand dollars and go through a lengthy court process to get each one overturned.
I was once told by a republican legislator in leadership that it's not the legislature's job to vote against unconstitutional bills. "That's the court's role," he said.
While he was correct in the balance of power, I swore an oath to support and defend our Federal and State Constitutions, and the highest law of our State says I can't vote for multi-subject bills - so I voted no on all of them.
Article IV, Section 17 of the MN Constitution "Laws to embrace only one subject. No law shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title."
That's it. That is the law. Tell your legislator to follow the damn law! "General Government funding and policy" isn't a title.