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MN Supreme Court to hear Trump ballot case Nov. 2
The High Court will hear arguments Nov. 2 in a legal action designed to keep the former president off the state’s 2024 ballots.
ST PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for Nov. 2 in a case brought by voters attempting to keep former President Donald Trump off the 2024 primary and general ballots in this state.
Former Secretary of State Joan Growe, former Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson, and others have filed a petition with the High Court, asking that Trump be disqualified from running for office because of his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
It’s part of a larger ongoing effort nationwide by organizations asking election officials to disqualify Trump based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. But Minnesota is the first state where court action has been initiated because of a state law that allows voters to directly petition the Minnesota Supreme Court to disqualify a candidate.
The case has some urgency because early voting begins in mid-January for the state’s March 5 presidential preference primary. Trump remains the frontrunner in the GOP primary race while facing a growing number of indictments for actions, including charges that he conspired with others to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Typically, the political parties decide which presidential candidates’ names will appear on the presidential primary and general election ballots. This petition, if successful, would deprive Minnesota Republicans of nominating the former president.
“The rule is that the political parties submit a person, and in the case of the primaries, a list of folks they want to appear on their ballot,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told KARE.
“And in the case of the General Election they submit an individual for president, and an individual for vice president who they certify as their nominee.”
The national election reform group known as Free Speech for the People is leading the campaign to keep Trump off the ballot and is working with the plaintiffs in the Minnesota case.
“It’s very clear that Section 3 says anyone who swore an oath to support the constitution but then engaged in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States is disqualified from public office unless and until two-thirds of both houses of Congress brings that person amnesty,” Ron Fein, legal director for Free Speech for the People, told reporters in a press conference last week.
He said the Constitution doesn’t require the person be charged or convicted with any specific crimes in order to be disqualified from holding office. Congress passed the 14th Amendment following the Civil War to guard against Confederate leaders from returning to power in the reunited nation.
“The vast majority of ex-Confederates who were covered by Section 3 were never charged with any crimes, let alone convicted of them,” Fein added.
The court has already granted the Minnesota Republican Party to intervene in the case, and other groups are expected to jump into the fray. Party chair David Hann blasted the petition in a statement to the media.
“The Republican Party of Minnesota believes that voters in Minnesota should ultimately decide through voting which candidates are qualified to represent them in public office. The Minnesota Supreme Court should reject this fringe legal theory which is purposefully designed to prevent voters from having a voice in our elections.”
Secretary Simon is listed as the defendant in the case because the law is designed to prevent the secretary of state from placing a disqualified person on a ballot. But Simon says he expects to remain on the sidelines of this battle.
“We don’t take any position on the merits. I want to be very clear. This is up to court to decide,” Simon said.
“We will be in most respects a bystander in this litigation, as presumably the plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit and President Trump and his lawyers spar over what the facts are and what the law is. We take no position on the facts. We take no position on the ultimate legal conclusion over whether former president Trump is or isn’t entitled to be on the ballot.”
The Minnesota – MSA 204B.44 – has been used in the past mainly for voters to mount residency challenges. That’s what happened to Representative Bob Barrett in 2016. In response to a voter petition, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled he was disqualified to run for re-election because he was no longer a resident of his district.
What the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, Section 3 says:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
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Prosecutors say Mychal Allan Stowers was on work release from prison when he shot his pregnant ex-wife, and then shot another man during a carjacking.
ST PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul police are looking for a man now charged with two counts of second-degree murder after allegedly shooting his ex-wife and her unborn child.
A criminal complaint filed against 37-year-old Mychal Allan Stowers details the two murder counts as well as carjacking and assault charges associated with his getaway.
St. Paul squads were dispatched to 139 Sycamore St. E. just after 9 p.m. Oct. 19 on reports of shots fired. Arriving officers were met by residents who told them they heard gunshots in apartment 3. Police entered the apartment and found a woman laying on the floor surrounded by spent 9mm shell casings. Paramedics responded and declared the victim dead just before 9:30 pm.
Police later identified the victim as 35-year-old Damara Alexis Stowers.
Investigators on the scene found a loaded handgun on a bed in a different bedroom, along with photos from an ultrasound. In the apartment mailbox were two letters, one addressed to the victim and the other to a Mychal Stowers. While officers were in the apartment a cellphone rang, and the contact name that showed was “My$hon Stowers.”
Neighbors described seeing a heavyset man in his late 30s or 40s running from the scene. One told officers he heard four or five shots from the apartment, walked outside, and soon heard two more from a few blocks away.
The owner of the building told police the victim was in the process of being evicted, and that her ex-boyfriend had been living in the apartment with her, which was against the lease.
Additional officers were dispatched to 99 Acker Street, a few blocks from the apartment shooting scene, at around 9:15 p.m. on reports of a carjacking. They found a man who had been shot in the leg, breaking his femur. The victim’s friend said they were standing outside a running vehicle when a heavyset Black male ran up, said something they did not understand and then shot the victim. The assailant then stole the running gray Audi.
The complaint states that on the same day an employee of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office reported that Mychal Stowers called, said he had shot someone and wanted to turn himself in. Despite the call, Stowers did not turn himself in.
Records from the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) show Stowers was released from prison in March after serving time for another murder, was on work release and supposed to be living at a halfway house. He had had been granted a pass to visit his “ex-wife” at 139 Sycamore.
Preliminary tests show the same gun fired spent shells recovered at both the murder and carjacking scenes, and the defendant matches descriptions of the shooter from witnesses at both scenes.
At this time Michael Stowers is not in custody.
Donald Edmondson suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest at his north-side apartment building on Nov. 24, 2023.
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis man who pleaded guilty to entering another man’s apartment and shooting him to death last year was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office released a statement saying 59-year-old Walter Hill was sentenced on second-degree intentional murder charges in 60-year-old Donald Edmondson’s November 2023 killing.
Prosecutors said Hill was given 337 days of credit for time already served.
“Mr. Edmondson should still be alive,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “A violent act committed with such disregard by Mr. Hill has taken him from his family. This sentence delivers accountability and protects our community, and I hope it brings some measure of peace to Mr. Edmondson’s loved ones as they attempt to move forward with their lives.”
According to police, Edmondson suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest at his north-side apartment building on Nov. 24, 2023.
The attorney’s office said Hill entered his guilty plea Monday.
Turns out, Twin Cities realtor and billboard personality Kris Lindahl is in on the joke.
MINNEAPOLIS — The makers of the video game “Call of Duty” launched a new, locally inspired campaign Friday, coinciding with the release of the franchise’s newest installment, “Black Ops 6.”
Motorists might notice real estate agent Kris Lindahl, famously seen with his arms out over every interstate in town, was replaced by *ahem* “The Replacer,” an Activision character played by actor Peter Stormare.
For the next few weeks, The Replacer will step in for Lindahl not only on billboards but also on advertisements across television, streaming and social media platforms.
But why does Lindahl need The Replacer’s help, you might ask?
So he’s free to play “Black Ops 6,” of course.
The Replacer isn’t new to Minnesota. He also once stepped into the shoes of Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards.
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