Administrative Law - Blogs
- How Broad is the Longoria Rule: Enough to Change Failure-to-Register Practice?
In an interesting published opinion issued today, a unanimous panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the imposition of a 10-year period of conditional release for an offender whose failure to register as predatory offender began before the effective date of the statute authorizing this penalty, but continued after the date on which the new penalty became effective. In May of 2005, Ernesto Longoria, a Level III predatory offender, registered that he was living at an address on Robie...
(May 12, 2008) - When More is More: The Joy of Wide Open Spaces
As a very early Father's Day-Statehood Day-Summer Solstice-Birthday-Fourth of July present, I recently received an 8 Gigabyte iPod Nano. Between a somewhat modest cache of the music that I enjoy and a not-modest-at-all collection of podcasts that I am interested in, I had badly outgrown my much slimmer 2 Gigabyte model. I was forever uploading and off-loading recordings so as to fit within the confines of my allotted space. The quadrupling of the memory banks, however, has been a real relief....
(May 10, 2008) - About This Blog
The Law Professors Blogs Network is looking for faculty in this area of law to re-launch this blog. If you would like more information about what this entails, please email Paul Caron at paul.caron@uc.edu
(May 9, 2008) - Past and Prologue: The Importance of Agency Precedent
In an interesting published opinion issued on Tuesday of this week, a unanimous panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a determination of the Public Utilities Commission denying certain cost recoveries to CenterPoint Energy Minnesota Gas. CenterPoint Energy sells natural gas to customers in Minnesota on a "pass-through basis," and is entitled to recover a portion of its annual overhead costs upon these sales. As a result of accounting errors, the utility overstated the...
(May 9, 2008) - District Court: Landlords Have No Standing to Challenge Inspection Ordinance
In an interesting opinion issued on Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota turned away the challenge of landlords in Red Wing, Minnesota to a City ordinance that regulated rental housing. (An earlier photograph of a few of the plaintiff-landlords is accessible here.) At issue in the case was the constitutionality of requirements which, in the view of the landlords, conditioned the right to rent housing on a landlord's willingness to have government housing inspectors...
(May 3, 2008) - First Ever Rule Veto, Stirs Memories and Old Debate
On Friday, Governor Tim Pawlenty exercised the powers the granted to him under Minnesota Statutes § 14.05 to "veto all or a severable portion of a rule." The Governor's veto bars certain proposed revisions to the state's voter registration rules from going into effect. The Office of Governor Pawlenty had earlier expressed concern that the Secretary of State's proposed rules with respect to registering voters who reside in residential facilities or who are enrolled in post-secondary educational...
(May 2, 2008) - Representative Hansen Seeks Greater Disclosure from State Court Judges, County Commissioners
While the Legislative Session is winding into its final weeks, there are still introductions of new bills - whether for position-taking by Members, or as a "vehicles" for other collections of legislative proposals or as previews of the work that Members hope to do in upcoming legislative sessions. Perhaps for this last reason, the introduction of a measure by Representative Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) to include state court judges and county commissioners under the definition of "public...
(May 2, 2008) - Further Previews of "Making Your Case"
For those who were intrigued by their appearence on 60 Minutes last evening, the May 2008 issue of the ABA Journal includes excerpts of the just-released book from Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Antonin Scalia and the Editor-in-Chief of Black's Law Dictionary, Bryan A. Garner. The book, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, is no doubt on its way to being an important resource for advocates of all stripes. As the ABA Journal reveals, the book makes important calls for...
(April 27, 2008) - The Indiana Photo ID Case: Would that be 6 to 3 or 3 to 6?
As you have no doubt already heard, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 6 to 3, upheld an Indiana law that requires presentment of a government-issued photo identification for in-person voting. Six Justices agreed with Indiana that even if there was evidence that the regulation impacted some voters more than others, the photo-ID requirement did not amount "invidious discrimination." For me, the most interesting feature of the opinion was not what the Justices said about the Indiana law...
(April 27, 2008) - How to Clean Out the Shed
This Thursday, of course, is May 1st. While in many parts of the country this date is denominated as "Law Day," in Minnesota it is perhaps better known as the last day of winter…. So, today, I conflated my celebrations for each occasion by withdrawing our picnic table and Adirondack chairs from the garden shed, packing in the snow-blower, sled and hockey sticks in their place, all while listening to some tremendous podcasts. Among the items that had me thinking about the law during my labors...
(April 26, 2008) - What Did He Know, When Did He Know It, and Frankly, How Can One Tell?
On Tuesday, a divided panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued a decision that has had me ruminating throughout the week. At issue in the case are the circumstances under which a Minnesota offender, who later relocates to another state, may be prosecuted for failing to update his Predatory Offender Registration. State and county officials sought to prosecute Damon Moore, a Level III offender, for failing to update his registration information following a move that he made from Illinois to...
(April 23, 2008) - Not Just Twirling in the Wind: Turbine Decision is a Useful Tale for Litigators
In an interesting opinion issued yesterday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit sustained the challenge of Clark County, Nevada to a series of Federal Aviation Administration orders. County officials challenged the agency's determinations that a plan to place 83 wind turbines atop Table Mountain would not interfere with the county's parallel development of an airport, in the valley below, some ten miles away. The County argued that the proposed wind turbines...
(April 18, 2008) - The Registry Door Swings Both Ways
In a testament to the fact that Minnesota's Predatory Offender Registration law is a flexible "regulatory" statute, on Tuesday, a panel of the state's Court of Appeals held that later-enacted amendments which narrowed the reach of the statute could be applied retroactively to relieve an offender of the requirements to register as a predatory offender. The case arose out of the burglary conviction of one Rodney Jedlicka, who stole money from a purse while inside an occupied home - a home that...
(April 16, 2008) - Minnesota Supreme Court Grants Review of “Filed Rate” Case
The Minnesota Supreme Court today granted further review of a January decision of the Minnesota Court of Appeals on the reach of the "filed-rate doctrine." Earlier this year, a panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that the doctrine barred court actions against electric utilities which challenge the adequacy of services provided, at certain approved rates, under tariffs that had been earlier-approved by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. A post that I made about the decision from...
(April 16, 2008) - Federalism and the Canada Lynx: Traps for the Unwary?
In an interesting opinion issued late last month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota entered an injunction against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The injunction directed the Department to apply for certain permits under the Endangered Species Act and to provide a "proposal, to be submitted to the Court on or before April 30, 2008, to restrict, modify or eliminate the use the incidental taking of Canada Lynx through trapping activities in the core Canada Lynx...
(April 15, 2008) - Way Cool Audio - Part One: Be Not Afraid
I had the occasion to do a little state travel earlier this week. I took with me some podcasts from the American Radioworks series on Great Speeches by African-Americans. Included in the collection are speeches by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Interestingly, the two items were linked in a way that the producers could not have imagined. The feature on Dr. King's last year of life closes with Reverend Ralph Abernathy's description of how he held King,...
(April 12, 2008) - Way Cool Audio - Part Two: The Law and Health, Work, Secrets and Death
As noted in the post above, I have been listening to some thought-provoking podcasts this past week. Below, are some selections that I thought might be of interest to the readers of these pages: n Denis Cortese, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mayo Clinic, made remarks to the National Press Club earlier this month. In his address, Dr. Cortese discusses the policy changes that are needed to create a patient-centered health care system in the United States. His address is...
(April 12, 2008) - The Changes in Contract Rights that Trigger a Hearing
Likewise among the unpublished opinions issued on Tuesday, a panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that a local housing authority was not required to hold a hearing if the agency decided not to use the services of a particular housing vendor in the future. Alleging that the vendor was in fact in living in an apartment being subsidized in favor of his paramour, in violation of the program rules, the agency cancelled the vendor's Section 8 contracts and sought to set-off the amount of the...
(April 11, 2008) - He’s a Real Nowhere Man
In an interesting unpublished opinion issued on Tuesday of this week, a unanimous panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's dismissal of the habeas petition of one Jeffrey Alan Truelson and remanded his case for further proceedings. Truelson, a Level III sex offender, had been detained in state prison during his supervised release period because serial attempts to find appropriate housing for him in the community had failed. While current regulations provide for the...
(April 11, 2008) - Blowing Through the Backlog
Showing the strength of the Minnesota Court of Appeals' compliment of new Judges, as well the vigor of some very able retired judges sitting now by designation, the Court today issued six published opinions, thirty-seven unpublished opinions and three order opinions. Among the cache of today's unpublished opinions, are a few items that will be of interest to readers of these pages - and will be summarized in due course. Please stay tuned.
(April 7, 2008)