Max Hailperin

"Nicholson ... lives in the prosperous west metro city of Minnetrista." Which is code for his living in a house with $2.7 million assessed value, purchased in 2021 for $2.35 million.

In the Minnesota case, at this morning's hearing, the judge indicated the former DOJ folks could be amici (as she had previously granted) but the US could file a response brief.

No, I didn't. Thanks.

Here we go again—our 7th election in 7 months. It’s a special election, so things will be slower, but we still have to be in the office at 4:30 AM, ready to support our election officers as they serve today.

Beyond this, the opposition filed by Plaintiff, the United States government, represents a remarkable about-face. On February 20, 2026—after the parties’ briefing on the Motion to Dismiss—Plaintiff informed counsel for the Former DOJ Employees via email that it took no position on the Former DOJ Employees’ Motion. See Exhibit A, March 2, 2026, Declaration of Andrew Mohring. Understanding that the Motion was unopposed, the Former DOJ Employees filed the Motion six days later, on February

26, 2026, and the Court granted the Motion the following day. Dkt. 129. It was only thereafter that Plaintiff decided—on second thought—that it would rather this Court not hear the Former DOJ Employees’ persuasive arguments after all. Doc. 131. Thus, it is not the Motion that is a “thirteenth-hour filing,” id. at 2; it is Plaintiff’s reverse-course opposition to it.

In the Minnesota voter data case, the former DOJ attorneys have some spicy words for the current DOJ attorneys' conduct.

I've often bemoaned Minnesota legislators introducing unrealistically ambitious election administration bills. Today was a nice counterexample with the House committee laying over 3 minor adjustments to current law that could easily be refined and adopted on a bipartisan basis.

Of the two Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) cases the Supreme Court turned down today, this is the more interesting one, as it concerns voter list maintenance at well as public information release. www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-f...

I wonder how far the effect of speed cameras extends? If fewer people are speeding southbound on Nicollet at 46th, are they already slowing down at 45th? 43rd? www.startribune.com/speeding-dro...

Nick Shirley, U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber's guest at State of the Union, shows who he is • Minnesota Reformer The ignorant lies change, but the sentiment stays the same.

Commentary: "The problem with a political philosophy based on racial hierarchies — aside from being morally repugnant — is that they’ll come for you eventually."
Nick Shirley, U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber’s guest at State of the Union, shows who he is minnesotareformer.com/2026/03/02/n...

He's understandably bundled up, making recognition harder, but maybe that's "Music Man" Joe (Jocephus) Lomax?

A, partly because it plays into the circular arrangement but mostly because the white space in B between the whistle and the vertical rule is too prominent

Whatever. It's your jacket. I'm just saying that the whistle and the camera play different roles. If they aren't different enough for you, see above regarding whose jacket it is.

Observing and documenting are somewhat different

A, because even with the mittens, the handshake is too closely related to the first. It doesn't visually read as four distinct things so clearly as the version with the grocery bag. The grocery bag is also more concrete.

Meanwhile, hardcore election deniers have decided that war with Iran is being used to distract them from the lack of Republican progress on passing, at bare minimum, the SAVE America Act. In case you were wondering how the world looks from the other side of the bifurcation.

OFFS. When Iran tried to interefere in 2020, researchers caught them and called them out. Then the Benz-Weiss-Taibbi-Musk-Jordan-Trump axis labeled those researchers "censors" ... and set about defunding them and dismantling their organizations.

I haven't tracked the Minnesota cases more than casually but none of the judges here have yet admonished jail officials for cooperating with unlawful detentions like this, have they?

I would wager he has left instructions regarding which hat should be on his head for his open casket funeral.

Exactly. The "proposed Executive Order" is fan fiction.

In Minnesota, when a voter checks in at a polling place that uses electronic rosters, a voter certificate is printed out. And if they registered or updated registration, a registration application is printed too. So there's the same paper trail as at old -school polling places.

There are 13 neighborhoods in the Northeast community by the official nomenclature.

"It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is."
That quote from Marbury v Madison comes immediately to mind when reading the spin from the DOJ blaming judges for not having "followed the law."

Lucy holds football for Charlie Brown to kick, saying "Change this aspect of election administration, and I'll trust election results."

This time will be different, right?

Former DOJ lawyers call federal attempt to get Minnesota voter rolls a ‘fishing expedition’ Sixteen former lawyers from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division say the department “overstepped its bounds.”

A group of former U.S. Department of Justice attorneys say the ongoing federal attempt to force Minnesota officials to turn over its voter rolls amounts to a “fishing expedition” not supported by law.

In Minnesota's November 2024 general election, I've found 2 apartments that each had 5 residents cast ballots by mail, 12 apartments that each had 4 residents, and the rest were 3 or fewer. If someone has evidence of an apartment with a whole bunch of ballots, I'd love to see it.

I've seen plenty of bad bills introduced in the MN legislature, and until they get a hearing there's really no point in doing anything. But it is a bit worrisome that a contender for most misguided ever has the committee co-chair as its lead sponsor.

In the 2024 general election, Minneapolis as whole had 13.5% of its ballots cast by mail, whereas Ward 6 Precinct 3, a heavily Somali precinct, had only 7.3% of its ballots cast by mail.

Indeed, one can look back at other federal voting laws (UOCAVA in 1986, HAVA in 2002, and MOVE in 2009) and see the same care with effective dates. And the bill for the SAVE America Act has the same immediate effective date in the photo ID section as in the registration section.

Effective date section from the National Voter Registration Act of 1993

Effective date paragraph of the voter registration section of the House engrossed and amended SAVE America Act

A stark contrast between the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the House-passed SAVE America Act. The former had an effective date structured to allow orderly implementation, even in states that would need to amend their constitutions. The latter would be immediate.

Lessons from the Minnesota’s Civil Contempt Case “The government’s understaffing and high case load is a problem of its own making,” a federal judge observed.

Lessons from the MN civil contempt case, by me:
Petitioner’s atty: “I understand that the caseload has affected all parties astronomically, and we are all human. But my client is, too. . . . All the people behind these petitions are humans.”
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/less...