ST PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz did not exceed his authority when he declared a peacetime emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a ruling published Monday by the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
The decision stems from a lawsuit filed at the height of the pandemic by a group of Minnesota residents, businesses and churches, who claimed the governor's mask mandate was a violation of constitutional rights, and that the peacetime emergency exceeded the governor's powers.
"We hold that the Minnesota Emergency Management Act of 1996 authorized the Governor to declare a peacetime emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," Judge Michelle Larkin wrote in the court's published opinion.
The lawsuit was originally dismissed at the district court level. The plaintiffs filed an appeal, but by that time the mandate had ended, the appeal was dismissed as moot by the Court of Appeals. However, it was appealed again to the Minnesota Supreme Court, who sent it back to the Court of Appeals to consider the main question surrounding the governor's authority under the law.
The Minnesota Emergency Management Act of 1996 authorizes the governor to have “emergency and disaster powers” to respond to “natural and other disasters of major size and destructiveness" through a "peacetime emergency," and any orders by the governor under that emergency have "the full force and effect of law."
The plaintiffs argued that the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a public health emergency and not an "act of nature" under the law.
However, the Court of Appeals disagreed, citing its own previous ruling involving a restaurant owner who sued the state using a similar argument.
"In (the previous case), we considered the context in which the phrase 'act of nature' is used and concluded that its meaning is unambiguous," Judge Larkin wrote. "For example, we noted that our plain-language approach was confirmed by other sections in the Act that 'contemplate that a communicable disease may be the basis for a peacetime emergency' ... And even though we concluded that 'act of nature' is unambiguous, we noted that the (1996 law’s) legislative history was consistent with our conclusion that the Act authorized a peacetime emergency based on the COVID-19 pandemic."
The plaintiffs also argued the Minnesota Emergency Management Act of 1996 is an unconstitutional surrender of legislative power to the governor, but the Court of Appeals did not rule on the constitutionality of the law. Judge Larkin wrote that the Minnesota Supreme Court did not ask them to do so because the case involved a dispute between Minnesota citizens and the government, and was not a dispute between branches of government.
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