ST. PAUL, Minn. (CN) — Minnesota’s smallest “major” party has lost that status after the state’s Supreme Court found it failed to maintain proper party governance.
In an order issued Friday but released publicly on Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court found that the Legal Marijuana Now Party was beholden to statutory requirements for major parties if it wanted to keep the benefits afforded to those parties, and that the requirements themselves did not violate First Amendment associational rights.
The party attained major party status in Minnesota after its candidate for state auditor received 5.28% of the vote in 2018. Passing the 5% threshold netted benefits like the ability to have its members appointed as election judges and a guaranteed spot on state ballots.
According to Democratic Farmer Labor Party chair Ken Martin, however, major-party status also came with rules — and Legal Marijuana Now flouted them.
Martin petitioned the court, naming Secretary of State Steve Simon as respondent, in search of an order decertifying the Legal Marijuana Now Party as a major party. Legal Marijuana Now intervened, and the court heard arguments in April.
Besides failing to reach 5% in any statewide elections since 2018, Martin argued, the party had not established a state central committee or state executive committee operating on behalf of a statewide convention or provided for local conventions and committees. That meant party hadn’t complied with requirements to ensure that members have a say in the direction of their party.
Legal Marijuana Now argued that its head Ccuncil satisfied thes requirements, and that the requirements were unconstitutional regardless.
“I think the state legislature didn’t even really think about free speech rights, associational rights, didn’t think about tailoring it, and they just created a compliance requirement,” attorney Erick Kaardal told the court during oral arguments.
The Supreme Court, in a per curiam opinion in which Justices Karl Procaccini and Margaret Chutich took no part, didn’t see much merit in the Legal Marijuana Now Party's constitutional challenge.
“The LMNP only makes broad assertions about the burdens on its associational rights and fails to argue or otherwise demonstrate how any of the purported burdens imposed upon it are specifically caused by the requirements,” the court wrote. Requiring the establishment of a representative central committee governed by a state convention, the justices continued, also served a legitimate state interest under Supreme Court precedent dating back to 1979.
As far as compliance with those requirements went, the court found that Legal Marijuana Now didn’t come close.
Not only had it failed to surpass the 5% vote threshold since its 2018 peak, but the party’s head council holds final authority over all party decisions, rather than being subject to its nonexistent state convention. While the council effectively functions as the party's central committee, its unilateral control over party affairs violated statutory requirements.
“The primacy placed on the convention is entirely consistent with the requirement upheld in [the 1979 Supreme Court case] Marchioro, where the Court highlighted that Washington law made the state convention rather than the state central committee the party’s governing body,” the court wrote.
“Ensuring that the state convention has authority over the state central committee also helps further the recognized state interest ‘to assure that intraparty competition is resolved in a democratic fashion.’”
The court ordered Secretary of State Simon to consider whether Legal Marijuana Now has met the less stringent requirements to be a minor political party.
Legal Marijuana Now’s name is somewhat anachronous in Minnesota after the state’s 2023 legalization of bud. In some ways, however, the name’s demand still rings in the state: While possession, use and some growth of cannabis is permitted in Minnesota, the state has stumbled repeatedly in establishing a legal market for the drug.
The Office of Cannabis Management, set up as part of legalization, recently proposed changes to the law that would allow it to issue temporary licenses for up to 50 retailers while more permanent licensing issues persist.
Legal Marijuana Now, meanwhile, has been a thorn in the side of Democrats around the state since obtaining major party status.
While the Democratic Farmer Labor Party largely took up the torch of marijuana legalization during Governor Tim Walz’s first statewide campaign in 2018, Legal Marijuana Now Party candidates have cropped up in competitive races around the state ever since.
Legal Marijuana Now candidates have been a fixture in elections in south-central Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, with at least one candidate reportedly being courted by Republican operatives seeking to draw votes away from Democratic Farmer Labor Party candidates.
Martin celebrated the ruling on Friday, telling Minnesota Public Radio that it made Minnesota politics fairer for the state’s two remaining major parties.
“It’s just inherently unfair that you have two major parties … who do a significant work in organizing around the state and building a statewide organization and certifying our work every year to the Secretary of State — and it’s just unfair for another party to suggest that they’re the same,” he said.
In a statement, Legal Marijuana Now chair Dennis Schuller accused Democrats of writing the laws to benefit their own party and said that the party intended to appeal the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. "The U.S. Supreme Court will likely find Minnesota's DFL-written election law to be unconstitutional," the statement said, characterizing Democrats as "frightened" of Legal Marijuana Now. The party is soliciting donations for the challenge to its major party status on its website.
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