The Minnesota Supreme Court is now considering the question of whether or not there was a quorum in the Minnesota House yesterday, which is necessary to do House business according to the state constitution.
The House DFL Caucus and Secretary of State Steve Simon have both filed lawsuits claiming Republicans' acting as a majority and electing a Speaker on the first day of the legislative session was unlawful with those Democrats boycotting the start of the session.
"There's a good chance the Supreme Court is going to strike down what the Republicans have done," predicts University of Minnesota Political Science Professor Larry Jacobs. "So bottom line, I think in about a month's time, we're going to have Democrats and Republicans sharing power in the Minnesota House, and what's going on right now will fade into history and become a kind of a Trivial Pursuit question."
The question the State Supreme Court will need to answer is, what constitutes a quorum in the chamber? Democrats and Simon say 68 members were needed to meet due to a statue that says a "majority" of 134 members must be there, but Republicans disagree.
Jacobs says this is simply a case that comes down to playing politics. Nothing passed by the House at this time would get through a Senate that is currently tied 33-33 with a special election coming up for a seat occupied by late Sen. Kari Dziedzic. That likely means the DFL will again control that body. There's also Governor Tim Walz.
"What the Republicans are doing in the House is not going to create new laws," Jacobs tells WCCO Radio. "It's being used for a political purpose to advertise to Republican donors and advocates why their support mattered."
Jacobs expects that in the next few weeks it will be business as usual. He says the animosity in the House could impact the process of agreeing to a budget which is required by law by end of session.
"Can the Democrats or Republicans pass a budget this term? That's going to be the real test," he says. "They need to pass a budget, keep the lights on, the government. Republicans have a very different idea what that budget looks like from Democrats."
He adds part of the issue is leftover animosity from Republicans after being left out of the most of the processes in government during the last session where Democrats held a "trifecta" of the House, Senate and Governor's Office and passed the largest state budget in state history.