Six members of the Minnesota State House have been honored in the Legislative Evaluation Assembly’s 2018 Report on the Minnesota Legislature. Thirty-two legislators received an honorable mention. The 2018 Report This year’s evaluation focuses on seventeen floor votes that highlight important principles … Continue reading →
John Augustine is quoted in the article as part of the “chorus of observers” worrying about “bill-stuffing”.
LEA President Don Lee was the keynote speaker on May 19th at a meeting of the Southwest Conservative Republican Women in Prior Lake. (http://www.swcrw.org) The slides are here.
Don Lee
At the end of the talk, the attendees were eager to hear more about the Minnesota legislature’s website and how to use it. The presentation spent some time walking through important features of the legislature’s website at https://www.leg.state.mn.us.
Thank you to the Southwest Conservative Republican Women (SWCRW) for this opportunity.
John Augustine
Board member John Augustine describes in MinnPost the Games and Gamesmanship of the governor in an excellent article.
2018 LEA awards banquet
Over 60 people attended the LEA Annual Members’ Meeting and Legislative Awards Banquet, which was held March 1st at The Mermaid Event Center in Mounds View. LEA Board Chairman/President Don Lee thanked key members of the LEA board for their long and faithful service, and expressed a desire to grow the organization. LEA is a unique and valuable group.
Our three 2017 honorees, representatives Cal Bahr, Eric Lucero, and Matt Dean accepted their award plaques and each offered some brief comments. The keynote speech, “Reading Our Constitution in Plain English: A Populist Approach” was presented by Erick Kaardal, who has a long career challenging the illegal acts of government officials. His talk was full of fascinating anecdotes and inspiration to keep doing what we do. (We will post the full video when it is available). Continue reading →
The annual LEA 2018 Awards Banquet will be held on Thursday, March 1st, 2018 at the Mermaid Event Center 2200 County Hwy. 10, Mounds View (near Ramsey Co. Rd. H, just northwest of junction of Hwy. 10 and I-35W). Free parking and entrance are on the west side, in back of the building.
Featured Speakers: Attorney Erick Kaardal and Prof. Teresa Collett
Topic: Reading Our Constitution, in Plain English
In other words: why is it so hard for the people to have a common understanding of our state or federal constitutions?
How has legal interpretation strayed so far from the plain language of our constitution? What can we do about it?
Mr. Erick Kaardal earned a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago law school. He is a partner in the Mohrman, Kaardal and Erickson firm, and specializes in strategic litigation against the government. Erick Kaardal has been the legal strategist behind two First Amendment lawsuits that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Republican Party of Minnesota v. White , in a 5 to 4 decision, for the first time applied the First Amendment to judicial candidate speech. Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on February 28, 2018.
Prof. Teresa Collett earned a J.D. degree from the Univ. of Oklahoma law school. She is a professor at the University of St. Thomas law school, where she teaches Constitutional Litigation and serves as director of the school’s Prolife Center.
Continue reading →
Check out the podcast from the Sue Jeffers show on KTLK radio.
LEA is on the radio today.
John Augustine will be on AM1280 The Patriot with Mitch Berg at 2PM Dec 30th, for some year-end legislative talk and some frivolity. Then, at 4PM, Don Lee and John will be in the Twin Cities News Talk AM1130 studio with Sue Jeffers to talk about the LEA Report and the constitutional issues that will carry into next year.
Call in and join the discussion!
Links:
John Augustine was on Closing Argument with Walter Hudson Dec 20th at 9PM (Twin Cities News Talk, AM1130/FM103.5) to review the 2017 LEA Report on the Minnesota Legislature, and preview the legislature for 2018. Check out the podcast here (HR 1 John Augustine… Dec 20th):
https://itunes.apple.com/…/closing-argument-wi…/id1290900638
Check out the latest Living Free podcast. John Augustine discusses the recently released 2017 LEA Report on the Minnesota Legislature. http://www.livingfreepodcast.com/182-al-franken-episode/
Three members of the Minnesota State House have been honored in the Legislative Evaluation Assembly’s 2017 Report on the Minnesota Legislature. Nine legislators received an honorable mention.
This year’s evaluation focuses on sixteen floor votes that highlight important principles and policies. The 2017 report emphasizes the increasing use of unconstitutional multi-subject bills in place of the single-subject bills required by the Minnesota constitution. Multi-subject bills, often hundreds of pages long, have dominated the content of recent legislative sessions.
“Multi-subject bills are not only unconstitutional, but they derail accountability and allow special interests to manipulate the system at the expense of the citizens,” says LEA president, Don Lee. “Politicians love them for closed-door, team-based, deal-making. Citizens should hate them for the same reason.” The report condemns processes that create constitutional conflicts between the executive and legislative branches, such as making appropriations contingent upon passing certain policies. The governor signed bills and then tried to renegotiate by withholding the legislature’s funding. In another case, portions of a bill that the governor vetoed and did not become law were implemented by him anyway.
Download the 2017 LEA report here.