# Legislature *The Minnesota Legislature, the state's lawmaking body, as documented in this record* The Minnesota Legislature is the state's lawmaking body. Its enactments are recorded as session laws and indexed in the Revisor of Statutes' legislative history database.[^1] This article describes the Legislature through what it enacted, amended, created and left in place, and through the reports filed with it. That record runs from the Territorial Laws of 1851, which chartered the [[University of Minnesota]],[^2] to the Consumer Litigation Funding Act of 2023.[^3] On January 14, 2026, the [[United States Department of Justice]] announced a suit against the State under [[Title VII]] of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. The announcement was release No. 26-21, titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, and Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^4] The complaint in [[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]] (D. Minn.) cites [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]] eight times.[^5] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages finds Minnesota the only U.S. state so described. The term otherwise appears in instruments such as the [[Iraq Liberation Act]] of 1998, which states a policy of supporting efforts to remove "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein."[^6] Bodies the Legislature created describe themselves by purpose, and the record sets those descriptions beside later actions. The [[Metropolitan Council (Minnesota)]], created by the Legislature in 1967, describes its charge as to "plan for the orderly and economical development of the seven-county metro area."[^7] The [[Metropolitan Governance Task Force]] delivered a report to the Legislature dated February 1, 2024.[^8] A minority report filed with the task force used the words "the latest example of many previous reports to the legislature that failed."[^9] The next year, HF 1596 was introduced on February 25, 2025. It amended data-classification law to treat certain Council officials as "public officials" and did not amend the Council's membership, terms, appointment or election under § 473.123.[^10] ## Who The Legislature sits as a House and a Senate. Minnesota Planning's "Big Plan" results, archived by the Legislative Reference Library, include an item titled *Single House Legislature*.[^11] Ember Reichgott Junge (DFL–New Hope) was lead Senate author of the charter school bill debated in April 1991, whose session-law record is Laws 1991, chapter 265.[^12] Women in the Legislature rose from 1 to 14 in 1973, after organizing by the DFL feminist caucus.[^13] In the November 7, 1978 election, the DFL lost 32 state House seats and the Legislature split 67–67, a result the time table records as unprecedented.[^14] In the same election, both of Minnesota's U.S. Senate seats and the governorship also changed hands.[^15] On November 8, 2016, Ilhan Omar was elected to the Minnesota House from District 60B. She had defeated Phyllis Kahn, a 44-year incumbent, in the DFL primary.[^16] Seats on bodies the Legislature created are filled in two ways: by the Legislature itself or by the governor. The 1851 charter created a twelve-member [[Board of Regents]] elected by the Legislature.[^2] The Metropolitan Airports Commission, created in 1943, has 15 members: 13 gubernatorial appointees and the two mayors ex officio.[^17] The county-attorney seat on the [[Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission]] is filled by gubernatorial appointment under Minn. Stat. § 244.09; Wadena County Attorney Kyra Ladd was appointed to it in September 2023.[^18] ## What In 1953 the Legislature made racial covenants in housing contracts illegal.[^19] In 1955 it enacted the Fair Employment Practices Act, chapter 516 of that year's session laws.[^20] The Public Employment Labor Relations Act (PELRA), passed in 1971 and codified as chapter 179A, gave public employees collective bargaining.[^21] In June 1987, an amendment to the Minnesota Human Rights Act, chapter 363A, added disability protections and widened the Department of Human Rights' jurisdiction.[^22] A Kappan account records that the Legislature enacted inter-district open enrollment in 1986 on the proposal of Governor Rudy Perpich.[^23] The record identifies the federal REAL ID Act as H.R. 418 of the 109th Congress, signed May 11, 2005.[^24] In 2009 the Legislature prohibited its implementation; the project's time table describes the prohibition as protecting immigrant community access to state services.[^25] The 2023 Minnesota Consumer Litigation Funding Act, Laws 2023 chapter 57, sets mandatory disclosures, fair-contract guidelines and consumer protections for third-party litigation funding. It regulates the practice rather than prohibiting it again.[^3] In May 2017, MinnPost reported that the Legislature ended funding for a one-person office that studied women in the workforce.[^26] ### The statute in federal court The United States' complaint was filed January 14, 2026 in the District of Minnesota under Title VII. It rests on the text of Minn. Stat. § 43A.191, which it cites eight times. Among the provisions cited is subdivision 3(c), which requires an agency to explain the reason for hiring a non-affirmative candidate.[^5] The pack records the filing, the Department's release and the Attorney General's certification. It records no ruling.[^4] The suit follows [[Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services]], 605 U.S. 303 (2025). In that case the Supreme Court held that Title VII's disparate-treatment provision "draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs." It also rejected the Sixth Circuit's heightened "background circumstances" rule for majority-group plaintiffs.[^27] The validated sources in the pack do not date the enactment of § 43A.191 or identify the party that enacted it.[^5] ## When A government shutdown ran from July 1 to 19, 2011, which the time table records as 20 days. It followed a budget clash between Governor Mark Dayton and a Republican Legislature, and the session laws of the 2011 First Special Session are the record cited for it.[^28] On June 20, 2020, CBS Minnesota reported that the Legislature had adjourned a special session with issues unresolved.[^29] On May 15, 2025, Governor Walz and the Legislature agreed, as part of a budget deal, to close the Minnesota Correctional Facility–[[Stillwater]][^30] by June 30, 2029, according to Corrections1.[^31] HF 1596 was introduced in the 94th Legislature on February 25, 2025.[^10] ## Where The Territorial Legislature established Hennepin County on March 6, 1852, with [[Minneapolis]] as county seat. The county's own history page states that the original plan was to name it Snelling County and that "the final choice was designed to honor Father Hennepin."[^32] The 1851 university charter directed the Regents to site the institution "at or near the Falls of Saint Anthony" and barred sectarian instruction.[^2] ## How The Legislature acts in part by creating standing bodies. The Legislative Reference Library describes the Metropolitan Airports Commission, created under Laws 1943, chapter 500, as "the first metropolitan agency created by the Legislature." The commission operates Holman Field in Ramsey County.[^17] The Metropolitan Council and the [[Metropolitan Transit Commission]] followed in 1967. The Council's own history then lists the Metropolitan Sewer Board (1969), regional parks and the Metro HRA (1974), and the Metropolitan Land Planning Act (1976).[^7] In 1980 the Legislature established the Carver County Housing and Redevelopment Authority. It received Economic Development Authority powers in 2002 and was renamed the Carver County Community Development Agency in 2006.[^33] The Legislature also receives reports. The Sentencing Guidelines Commission's 2024 report to the Legislature records Commission staff training delivered at "the Minnesota County Attorneys Association monthly CLE series."[^34] The Revisor of Statutes' Court Opinions Report to the Legislature, dated November 15, 2010, summarizes [[Brayton v. Pawlenty]].[^35] In 2003 the [[Council on Crime and Justice]] delivered a statewide racial profiling report to the Legislature covering 65 jurisdictions, including the [[Dakota County Sheriff's Department]]. The report concluded that there was "a strong likelihood that racial/ethnic bias plays a role."[^36] ## How much Corrections1's account of the 2025 Stillwater agreement lists $160 million in deferred repairs, more than $8 million spent on preservation over four years, and projected annual savings of $40 million. AFSCME Council 5 executive director Bart Andersen called the closure an "unacceptable budget gimmick."[^31] In 2021 the family of corrections officer Joseph Gomm filed a wrongful-death suit against [[MINNCOR]] Industries, citing prior warnings from officers, staff and inmates. KSTP reported that the suit followed the Legislature's rejection of a proposed $3 million appropriation.[^37] ## How many Corrections1 reported that Stillwater held 1,206 people against a capacity of 1,600, and that about 565 employees would be affected by the closure.[^31] At its 45th anniversary on April 22, 2025, the Carver County agency re