Hot Dish 4.2.24

By Rochelle Olson

April Fool’s is past so we’re the only fools at last and we’re all returning to the Capitol rested, revived and renewed under an April snow. Hey, gimme a break, I had to dig up a starting sentence from somewhere. So yes, the Easter break is over and everybody get on back to the Capitol now.

In election-year news around the country, a New York judge expanded the gag order on former President Donald Trump, while the Florida Supreme Court upheld a 15-week ban on abortion, but voters will have there say both there and in a slew of other states. Trump will go after President Joe Biden on border and crime issues during visits to Michigan and Wisconsin, which holds its presidential primary today. More on that battleground state from Greta Kaul.

Because everyone else was away, I turned my attention to the state Supreme Court for oral arguments on the 2023 law restoring voting rights to felons upon release from incarceration. The Minnesota Voters Alliance is challenging the law and their lawyer James Dickey got a whole bunch of vigorous questions from the bench. The challenge to the law was tossed by Anoka County District Thomas Lehmann late last year for lack of legal standing. The court didn’t sound inclined to reinstate the lawsuit.

As I was writing, I pulled up my story from a year ago when the court said it wasn’t unconstitutional to bar felons from voting. Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, who was then an associate justice, wrote what read like a heartfelt dissent that the law was unconstitutional because it disenfranchised Black and Native American voters at much higher rates.

“The court effectively sanctions a pernicious statutory racial classification regime that maintains the disenfranchisement of large swaths of Minnesota’s communities of color, thereby diminishing their political power and influence in this state,” Hudson wrote. “We are better than this.”

My favorite moment in the hour-plus oral arguments came at the end when Dickey paused and thanked the justices who are retiring for their service. Not by name, of course, but he just took a moment. Justices G. Barry Anderson leaves next week with Justice Margaret Chutich to follow in a couple months.

The one man, Keala Ede, has barely had time to let his coffee cool on the Court of Appeals. Walz put him there last fall after Ede spent about 18 months on the Hennepin County bench.

Let the record reflect that I told you solicitor general Liz Kramer was in the mix and she’s now a finalist.

What’s it like to interview with the governor for one of these openings? I wish we could get video.

GENDER JOURNEY: State Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, talked with Duluth med students at an outreach session over a rift in gender-affirming care. Jana Hollingsworth was there and heard Kozlowski, who is nonbinary, describe their experiences in recent months. With Minnesota as a trans refuge state, Kozlowski said, it’s more important than ever to have enough medical providers trained in gender-affirming care, “especially out here in Greater Minnesota, where we are really feeling the strain.”

VENTURA VITAMINS: Former Gov. Jesse Ventura and his son, Tyrel, have released their first round of edibles for pre-order, ready to ship by 4.20, of course. They have titles like “Lake Street” for the south Minneapolis neighborhood where the gov grew up. I was enticed by the “Governor’s Selection” described as “This is the collection I’d offer to you if you were visiting me in the Governor’s mansion.” My question: Is that Tyrel or the former governor speaking? The two had different ideas about what it meant to host guests at the residence. ICYMI Tyrel treated the place like his personal party pad to the extent it made headlines.

10:15 a.m.: We’re told the visuals will be extraordinary as “stakeholders” report on Minnesota’s Habitat Friendly Solar program and its path forward in light of Minnesota’s ambitious carbon-free electricity requirements in the Capitol press office news conference room.

11:15 a.m.: Also in the Capitol news conference room, several DFL legislators, the Minnesota Pharmacists Association, patients and pharmacists will talk about bills that “will strengthen and protect patient access to pharmacy care in Minnesota.”

Both chambers are in session at noon. Today’s schedule.

OUTSIDE THE CAP:

Attorney General Keith Ellison will talk about police reform and his book “Break the Wheel” at the Humphrey School at 5 p.m.

9:30 a.m.: Call with the CEO of PAADIO Counseling.

9:45 a.m.: Call with the CEO of Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities.

10:15 a.m.: Meet with University of Minnesota’s Interim President Jeff Ettinger.

12:45 p.m.: Meet with the President of the Minnesota Professional Firefighters, Scott Vadnais.

1:30 p.m.: Attend AFSCME Council 5 day on the hill. ***NOT closed press so that means Walz will be roaming free in the Capitol wild.

3:35 p.m.: Attend a roundtable discussion with the Ambassador of Mexico to the United States and Minnesota businesses.

READING LIST

Keep us posted at hotdish@startribune.com.