Minnesota House revives effort to scrap lawmaker immunity

Their get-out-of-jail-free cards are a thing of the past, but Minnesota House lawmakers want to make it crystal clear: State legislators can’t avoid arrest during session.

Lawmakers’ supposed immunity from arrests for drunken driving and other crimes has been a touchy issue for years, even though the cards are no longer handed out. A House committee passed a bill Wednesday that would clarify lawmakers can be arrested, hoping to put to rest any confusion over a constitutional relic from frontier days meant to protect legislators from political tricks like being arrested on the way to an important vote.