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)
