Snell v. Walz

Overview

(Supreme Court of Minnesota, May 10, 2024) The Supreme Court of Minnesota affirmed dismissal of a challenge to the Governor of Minnesota’s power to declare a peacetime emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic under the State’s Emergency Management Act. The case had been presented to the State’s highest court previously, after most of the claims had been dismissed as moot because the period of peacetime emergency had ended. At that time, the Court remanded the case for substantive determination because the issue presented was “functionally justiciable” and “of statewide importance.” On remand, the lower courts held that the Act authorized the Governor’s emergency declaration. The Supreme Court of Minnesota affirmed, finding that the Act generally authorizes the Governor to declare a peacetime emergency in response to “a public health crisis such as a pandemic.” The Court considered the plaintiff’s argument that the Act was prohibited by the nondelegation doctrine, but rejected this argument because Minnesota’s statutes are “presumed constitutional,” and because the Act contains limitations and “non-illusory checks” on its powers and strikes a balance between “government overreach and emergent threats.” In a concurrence, Justice Anderson addressed “serious concerns” related to “executive branch emergency orders issued over extended periods of time,” but concluded that it is the Legislature’s role to assign powers and to design oversight systems to keep those powers in check. Read the full Opinion here.

View all cases in the Judicial Trends in Public Health – August 15, 2024.

View all cases under “Source and Scope of Public Health Legal Powers”