A brazen attempt by Minnesota Republicans to hijack the state House of Representatives collapsed earlier this month under the weight of its own illegality.
  • Nougat@fedia.io
    23·
    8 hours ago

    If you’re confused about how this attempted power grab was done –

    • State House has 134 members, evenly split 67-67 Democrat/Republican
    • Quorum is 68 members present; if fewer members are present, there is no quorum, and anything done by the reps present isn’t binding
    • Republican reps refused to seat one Democratic rep, on the grounds that that rep didn’t live in his home district
    • Democratic reps boycotted House sessions, leaving only the 67 Republican reps present
    • Sec of State said “No quorum, session adjourned”
    • Republican reps pretended that the Democrat they refused to seat didn’t exist, which by their “math” made quorum 67 members present
    • Republican reps voted for a Speaker
    • Democrats petitioned the court to put a stop to this
    • Court said “Republicans, you’re wrong”

    Take note that this hinged on a couple of very important things:

    • All Republican reps were in lockstep (par for the course)
    • All Democratic reps were in lockstep (holy shit, really?)

    This probably isn’t over. Good luck, Minnesota.