MinnLawyer Blog

I happened to catch the web footage of Gov. Tim Pawlenty on “The Daily Show“ last night. (Biggest unintentional funny line by the governor was in explaining that to run for president most people have to have money, fame and/or some sort of gimmick. Pawlenty acknowledged that he wasn’t famous, lacked a large amount of money and didn’t have “a big schtick.” That’s s-c-h-…, the governor had to explain over the audience’s guffaws.)

More to the point in the legal community, Pawlenty discussed his decision to veto legislation overturning a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that the weight of bong water should be used in calculating the amount of drugs in a possession charge. Because water weight adds up quickly, including the water makes the possession charge much more serious.

Pawlenty said that in vetoing the legislation, he was listening to law enforcement officers. Law enforcement officers generally wouldn’t use the serious charge for your run-of-the-mill low-level offender, but ought to have the discretion to do so when they want to rid the streets of a few “bad apples,” Pawlenty said.

If law enforcement is using the bong water law in such a fashion, it seems like a few of the “bad apples” might make the case for discriminatory enforcement.

In any event, the video of the portion of the governor’s appearance pertaining to bong water (and his schtick) is available here.