ACLU of Minnesota’s Post

BREAKING NEWS: The ACLU of Minnesota filed an amicus brief today seeking to help overturn decisions by a Mille Lacs County district judge that could steal the vote from more than 50,000 Minnesotans. “Shockingly, beginning about two weeks ago, a single judge in one Minnesota county began using the machinery of the judicial process to improperly disenfranchise Minnesota vote,” the friend-of-the-court brief said. Judge Matthew Quinn ruled that people who are on felony probation, parole or supervision cannot vote. That decision flies in the face of a law the Legislature passed this spring to restore the vote to more than 55,000 Minnesotans once they are no longer incarcerated, and a state Supreme Court ruling that clearly acknowledged the Legislature’s power to do so. “The district court’s orders are judicial activism that makes Minnesota’s judicial system a cause of voter confusion, suppression, and intimidation,” said the brief filed by the ACLU-MN and a pro bono team from Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP. The amicus brief urges the state Court of Appeals to immediately halt the ruling and send it directly to the state Supreme Court for a decision “to promptly and conclusively stop the district court from its unlawful and injudicious behavior.” The brief says that Judge Quinn’s decision:  ◾ Violates the state Constitution.  ◾ Was made without a request from anyone.  ◾ Abandons “all pretense of exercising judicial restraint.”  ◾ Creates chaos right before an election in violation of U.S. Supreme Court precedent. ◾ Chills the exercise of voting, a core constitutional right, by making 50,000+ Minnesotans’ ability to vote uncertain.  ◾ Disproportionately hurts people of color. At the end of 2021, Mille Lacs County disenfranchised 5% of Black residents and 15% of Indigenous residents, compared to 2% of all people.  Read it here: