MinnLawyer Blog

It’s the Ides of March and what better day to hear a dispute that pits executive power against the power of the Legislature?

This morning the Minnesota Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in the much-anticipated unallotment case. Critics of Governor Tim Pawlenty — including a number of lawmakers who have filed an amicus brief — argue that the Pawlenty usurped the role of the role of the second branch by balancing the budget and erasing a multibillion-dollar deficit on his own through the emergency unallotment power granted to Minnesota governors. Certainly such a massive use of the power is unparalleled in the history of our state — which, it must be acknowledged, is but a brief span of time compared to the history of Rome.

Pawlenty, of course, hopes that his battle with legislators ends better than the battle Julius Caesar had with Roman lawmakers — a battle that came to a head on the Ides of March, 44 B.C., with Caesar stabbed to death on the steps of the Senate.

Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Eric Magnuson’s announcement last week that he would be stepping down from his post this June adds yet another wrinkle to the unallotment case. You now have a lame duck chief justice presiding over a court trying to determine if the action of a lame duck governor was warranted. Plus Magnuson is Pawlenty’s friend — or at least was when the two started battling over how much of the shrinking pool of state funds the courts would get. In the two-year span since Pawlenty appointed Magnuson to the bench, that struggle has been a near constant one.

Will Magnuson wind up playing a modern-day Brutus to Pawlenty’s Caesar and side with the lawmakers lined up with his old law partner? (Et tu, Eric?)  

In truth, the answer is probably not quite that dramatic. The case will no doubt be decided on the justices’ legal view of the unallotment law — constitutional construction rather than republican (with a small “r”) sentiments. Fortunately, we settle our disputes here in Minnesota with a court ruling rather than the point of a dagger.

Personally, I will be celebrating the Ides of March in my traditional way — with a Caesar salad for lunch …