Proud of what Minnesota Dems have been able to get passed into law this year:

• HF2890/SF2909:
  • universal background checks for handgun sales
  • red flag’ law allowing family and others to petition a court to have guns removed from a person’s possession if they’re found to be a significant danger to themselves or others
  • helping offenders re-integrate into society and increasing crime prevention efforts
  • repealing defunct bans on adultery, fornication and consensual non-vaginal sex
  • expanding the right for a free public defender to cases where a person appeals a district court’s decision on a child protection case;
  • simplifying how victims of identity theft or mistaken identity can expunge court records to clear their names;
  • prohibiting peace officers from joining or supporting hate or extremist groups;
  • requiring places of public accommodation to provide closed-captioned television when a television is available;
  • allowing lawsuits seeking damages to continue after the person suing has died;
  • creating a carjacking crime and establishing penalties;
  • prohibiting law enforcement agencies from retaliating against, or penalizing a peace officer who intercedes against or reports another officer or employee use of excessive force;
  • creating a crime of organized retail theft;
  • prohibiting the state and counties from using private prisons;
  • restricting strip searches of detained juveniles;
  • establishing a supervised release board to review the cases of minors sentenced to mandatory life in prison;
  • establishing the Office of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls;
  • expanding the crime of an assault motivated by bias to include bias against a person due to the person’s gender, gender identity, or gender expression;
  • changing the first-degree possession offense to equate the possession of fentanyl with the possession of heroin;
  • requiring the state, instead of counties, to pay for medical examination costs for criminal sexual conduct victims;
  • requiring carbon monoxide alarms in hotel rooms;
  • granting early conditional release to inmates who make sufficient progress toward rehabilitation; and
  • establishing a Clemency Review Commission and modifying Board of Pardons’ operations.
• HF37: CROWN Act, prohibiting discrimination on hair style and texture
• SF13: Establishing Juneteenth as a paid state holiday
• HF146/SF63: deeming Minnesota a refuge state for transgender people and protecting them from legal repercussions for traveling to Minnesota for gender-affirming health care
• HF16/SF23: banning “conversion therapy” for minors and vulnerable adults
• HF1/SF1: codifying abortion rights and reproductive health care for all
• HF7/SF4: mandating Minnesota utilities transition to carbon-free energy by 2040
• HF28/SF28: A bill restoring voting rights to people still on parole or probation
• HF4/SF27: A bill allowing undocumented residents to obtain driver’s licenses
• HF1071/SF667: A bill codifying federal Indian Child Welfare Act language into Minnesota law
• HF5/SF123: A bill providing free breakfast and lunch for all Minnesota students in the majority of schools
• HF3:
  • automatic voter registration,
  • allows 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote
  • allows voters to choose to vote by mail permanently by getting on a permanent absentee ballot list.
  • requires more reporting of who’s behind political ads.
• To be signed:
  • HF100: legalizes recreational cannabis
  • SF1362: Joins Minnesota to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
  • HF91: Would decriminalize abortion and miscarriages

But there’s more that they should do in their next session to get up to the same level as their contemporaries, or even exceed them:

• Ban prison gerrymandering
• Zoning and housing reform
• Abolish the penal exception for slavery in the state constitution
• right to a clean environment and climate
• A right to free and fair elections
• A right to health
• Equal rights amendment
• More support for ranked choice voting
• abolish the state senate

(Sources: KVLY, Minnesota Reformer)