A proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to produce photo identification is misleading and unreasonable, according to a lawsuit filed in the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

After adjourning in the wee hours of Thursday morning, the Minnesota House of Representatives plunged ahead with the bittersweet biennial ritual of retirement speeches from departing members.

Even as Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature were advancing a voter ID constitutional amendment on to the November ballot last week, DFLers were predicting court challenges.

The measure, carried by Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer in the House and Sen. Scott Newman in the Senate, will now officially head to the ballot this fall.

The constitutional amendment is one step from the ballot, awaiting likely action Wednesday in the Senate.

Republican activists in House District 30A cast six ballots on Saturday seeking to endorse a candidate. But the convention adjourned with neither Chris Kumpula or Nick Zerwas reaching the 60 percent threshold required for endorsement.

The conventional wisdom from the start was that Session 2012 would be a short one. A healthy budget surplus plus newly redrawn legislative districts meant less work to be done at the Capitol and more to be done back home, where some lawmakers will face intra-party endorsement challenges and others have to get to know a daunting amount of new territory.

Last Saturday GOP activists gathered in Burnsville to determine who would be the endorsed candidate in House District 56A. No incumbent is running for re-election in the district, which leans heavily Republican.

On a party-line, 72-62 vote, the House passed a constitutional amendment to require photo ID from all voters at the polls.

Hopes for a last-ditch legislative deal that would avert a GOP constitutional amendment to require photo identification at the polls all but expired last week when no Republican lawmakers showed up to stand with Gov. Mark Dayton at a news conference on the subject.