Schultz Unsurprisingly Gets It Wrong

Jeff Kolb
Jeff Kolb
Jul 21, 2017 · 2 min read

David Schultz, one half of Minnesota media’s go-to wonder twins for terrible political analysis (the other being Larry Jacobs, of course), wrote yet another terrible analysis for MinnPost today about the court ruling against Governor Dayton’s unconstitutional line item veto of the legislature.

Surprisingly, considering Schultz’ postilion as a law professor, the political part of his analysis is not all that incorrect, rather it’s the legal analysis that is sub par here. The thrust of Schultz’ piece is that the court’s ruling against the governor weakens the governor’s power and changes the balance of the separation of powers.

It of course does no such thing. Instead, it preserves the existing balance of separation of powers that was always in place. The Minnesota Constitution is what is limiting the governor’s power. The court simply reminded the governor of this fact. There was no “reshuffling”.

The court did not take away power from the governor. It ruled the governor never had the power to begin with. Therefore, no power was shifted. Things are as they were a few months ago, before the governor tried to unconstitutionally defund the legislature.

Schultz is correct on a few items though. The governor’s decision was ill-advised and a foolish political and legal gambit. The governor’s attorney was always on weak ground, and the court’s decision was not surprising to anyone with a basic understanding of 9th grade civics.

And while Schultz is incorrect about the legal balance of power, he is correct that politically, the governor’s move here will put him in a weaker position vs the legislature.

So while Schultz and I agree that Dayton is in a weaker position as a result of this whole ordeal, I would contend that it’s not the court, but Dayton himself who put himself here.

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Jeff Kolb

Written by

Jeff Kolb

Crystal City Council. Semi-retired blogger. Yes, I’m rolling my eyes at you. Now please get off my lawn.

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