Republican Leaders, Governor Dayton React to Supreme Court Proceedings

Attorneys representing the Minnesota Legislature and Governor Mark Dayton made their cases before the Minnesota Supreme Court Monday, August 28. At issue is the constitutionality of Governor Dayton’s line-item veto defunding the House and Senate in the current two-year budget cycle.

Governor Dayton used the line-item veto as leverage to bring lawmakers back to the negotiating table to reconsider a handful of measures in the recently signed tax bill. Dayton said he signed the tax bill due to a “poison pill” tactic in the state government bill which would have unfunded the Minnesota Department of Revenue if the tax bill were vetoed in total.

Arguing on the Governor’s behalf, former Supreme Court Justice Sam Hanson said that the constitution guarantees the right to core funding for the legislature, rather than an appropriation, and that the legislature could access the necessary funding through the courts, as happened in 2001, 2005, and 2011.

Attorney Douglas Kelley, representing the legislature, argued that Governor Dayton’s veto is unconstitutional because its intention is to coerce concessions rather than object to a specific appropriation, and that by defunding the legislature’s appropriation, Dayton is diminishing a branch of government protected by the state’s constitution.

Following the attorney's oral arguments before the Minnesota Supreme Court, Republican leaders and Governor Mark Dayton met briefly with the State Capitol press corps.

(Video provided by House Public Information Services. To view the Minnesota Supreme Court Proceedings, visit )