Senate file 70, a bill to amend the Minnesota Constitution to provide for judicial retention elections, debuted at the Judiciary Committee yesterday to what I’d call mixed reviews. Mixed in the sense that I don’t think the committee is nearly as invested in this bill as the legal community would like to see.
Perhaps I’m wrong in my impression the committee members were by and large completely unaware of the bill’s contents, but Sen. Mee Moua more or less said that when she asked Sen. Ann Rest to walk the committee through the bill. That’s probably not unusual this early in the session, but to me it warns that there will be difficulty pushing this bill through this session, as former Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz and former Gov. Al Quie asked the committee to do.
I believe some expected the committee to vote the bill out yesterday, but those hopes were dashed when time ran out and persons wishing to testify were asked to come back today. If they couldn’t, they were asked to submit written testimony, which was just one reason why one person at the meeting advised me not to put any money on the likelihood of a vote today.
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