The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Minnesota
- Level
- Court
- Authority
- Minn. Stat. §§ 12.01-12.61 (Emergency Management Act), §§ 12.31, subd. 2; 12.32
- Issued
- 2024-05-10 May 10, 2024
- Effective
- 2024-05-10 (adjudicating the 2020-2021 peacetime emergency) (read as 2024-05-10)
- End
- standing precedent
- In force
- Standing since May 10, 2024 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Emergency declarationOther
- Addressees
- persons generally (the holding governs the validity of orders binding every person and business in the State)
- Character
- adjudication
- Collection
- Standing duties: Minnesota DUT-MN
Operative words
The Emergency Management Act authorizes the declaration of a peacetime emergency in response to a pandemic and did not require the Governor to make an evidentiary showing that the Act's requirements were satisfied before declaring a peacetime emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Penalty
Not applicable (judicial decision); it confirms the § 12.45 and order-specific penalties were penalties of law.
What it required
The State's highest court confirmed that every COVID-19 emergency executive order issued from March 13, 2020 to July 1, 2021 rested on valid statutory authority and carried, under § 12.32, 'the full force and effect of law', and that the Act's delegation to the Governor is constitutional. Character as recorded: adjudication (order_penalty layer).
Retrieval noteSlip opinion from the Minnesota State Law Library archive (CourtListener cluster 10706980 reports the citation 6 N.W.3d 458). Holding sentence at 11: 'Because a public health crisis such as a pandemic is capable of satisfying all of the requirements set by the Legislature for declaring a peacetime emergency, we agree with the court of appeals and conclude that the Act authorizes a governor to declare a peacetime emergency in response to such an emergency.' The opinion recites that orders 'have the "full force and effect of law." Minn. Stat. § 12.32 (2022)' and that the court of appeals had held 'that the COVID-19 pandemic falls within the scope of the statutory phrase "act of nature." Snell v. Walz, 993 N.W.2d 669, 672-73 (Minn. App. 2023)'. Snell I, 985 N.W.2d 277 (Minn. 2023), held the authority question fell within an exception to mootness. A decision issued after the period is pleaded as the authoritative construction of the statute that was in force during it.