Minnesota Independent

Minnesota Majority, tea party lose case on voter ID buttons

By Andy Birkey | 05.02.11 | 8:20 am

Minnesota Majority, Minnesota Voters Alliance and the North Star Tea Party Patriots lost a case in court on Friday when U.S. District Court Judge Joan Erickson dismissed the trio’s challenge to a state law that bans political apparel in the polling place. The groups had attempted a campaign to have their supporters bring “Please ID Me” buttons and tea party t-shirts into polling places, but elections officials said the items would not be allowed.

Lawsuit filed against district that denied anti-abortion rights student group

By Andy Birkey | 04.08.11 | 1:42 pm

The national religious right legal group Alliance Defense Fund filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota last week on behalf of a student who is trying to form an anti-abortion rights group at the St. Michael-Albertville High School. The All Life Is Valuable (ALIV) Club was denied permission to become an “officially recognized club” because school administrators said it didn’t “support the student body as a whole.”

Lindzi Campbell and Jesse Dykhuis are among three couples suing the state. Photo: Andy Birkey, Minnesota Independent

Judge rejects Family Council bid in gay marriage lawsuit

By Andy Birkey | 11.29.10 | 1:28 pm

A judge has rejected an attempt by the Minnesota Family Council to intervene in a lawsuit challenging state law that bans same-sex marriage. Three same-sex couples filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota earlier this year arguing that the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law in 1997 violates the state Constitution. The Family Council argued that it should be part of the lawsuit, in part, because if DOMA is ruled unconstitutional, it will cost them millions to fight same-sex marriage. The court said the group has no standing to defend DOMA.

‘If not now, then when?’: Same-sex couples speak out about lawsuit

By Andy Birkey | 05.11.10 | 4:51 pm

In 19 years together, Duane Gajewski and Doug Benson have been married in two states and Canada, and had a civil union in Vermont. “We’re hoping just in case one of those marriages is recognized, we’ll be safe,” said Gajewski. The pair is among three couples suing the state of Minnesota for the right to marry.

Déjà vu meets snafu at recount Ground Zero

By Chris Steller | 12.05.08 | 4:56 pm

Minneapolis Precinct 1, Ward 3 is now the latest and greatest Ground Zero of messed-up election practices to be exposed during Minnesota’s statewide recount in the U.S. Senate contest between Democrat Al Franken and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. It’s there, in the Dinkytown neighborhood on the edge of the University of Minnesota campus, that poll workers recorded 133 more votes than they have ballots to show for it. It’s also there that students trying to vote via Minnesota’s same-day registration process last month were turned away — in a re-run of a major snafu at another campus polling place during the last general election two years ago.