A Second Amendment rights organization is suing Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension over an expansive omnibus bill that the DFL-controlled legislature passed in the final moments of the legislative session last year, which includes a ban on binary triggers.
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus filed a complaint Wednesday in state district court arguing the legislature’s May 19, 2024, passage of HF5247—which contained more than 1,400 pages of provisions across several areas of government policy and expenditures—violates the “single subject clause” of the Minnesota Constitution. That bill passed on party lines and Republicans in the House and Senate had warned Walz not to sign it into law. A spokeswoman for Walz didn’t immediately return requests for comment on Wednesday.
One of the hundreds of provisions contained in what was supposed to be a tax bill is a “binary trigger ban” that the Second Amendment activists say makes the possession of binary triggers a felony crime, “even if they are not installed on a gun—a subject that has nothing to do with taxes or financing the state.”
“In passing a sprawling, nearly two-thousand-page bill packed with provisions touching all corners of state government, the Minnesota Legislature blatantly violated the single-subject clause of our constitution,” said Bryan Strawser, chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “By doing so, they pushed through a gun control provision banning commonly owned firearm triggers in the session’s final minutes—without allowing any meaningful debate.”
The new law defines a binary trigger as a “device that allows a firearm to shoot one shot on the pull of the trigger and a second shot on the release of the trigger without requiring a subsequent pull of the trigger.”
The Upper Midwest Law Center is representing the organization in the lawsuit. The complaint filed in Ramsey County also names Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty as defendants.
At issue in the complaint is the size and scope of the jumbo omnibus bill, which is a combination of nine separate omnibus bills that DFL legislators combined in the final hours of the 2024 legislative session and passed along party lines without any discussion on both the House and Senate floors. The bill, which Gov. Walz signed into law five days after it passed, includes Article 36, which changes the law on binary triggers.
When the ban went into effect last month, Walz took to social media to celebrate its enactment by declaring “we’re not hiding behind thoughts and prayers in Minnesota.”
In the complaint, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus argues that in “addition to Article 36, the bill includes numerous provisions completely unrelated to the bill’s subject, ‘the operation and financing of state government.'”
Other unrelated provisions in the bill include regulations on broadband, transportation network companies, health insurance, utility companies and abortion.
“This Frankenstein’s monster of an omnibus bill is the exact kind of fraud on the people of Minnesota that the Constitution aims to prevent, and that’s why it is critical we hold lawmakers accountable with this lawsuit,” said James Dickey, senior counsel with the Upper Midwest Law Center. “This is a clear violation of the single subject provision of the constitution. The Court should strike the whole thing.”
Healthcare titan sued state over same bill last summer
The lawsuit represents the second filed against the state over the jumbo omnibus bill and its alleged violation of the single subject clause contained in the Minnesota Constitution.
In August, UnitedHealth Group filed a lawsuit against the Department of Human Services, citing the same constitutional grounds as the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus complaint. The Minnesota-based health insurance titan said that the jumbo omnibus bill contained a provision that “limits choice for individuals, families and children in Minnesota.”
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
