Resource: Minn. Voters Alliance v. Walz

Plaintiffs argue that the mask mandate in public places passed by Executive Order by the governor of Minnesota at the start of the pandemic conflicts with a Minnesota statute prohibiting the wearing of a mask in public. The plaintiffs argue that the prospect of being prosecuted either for wearing a mask or not wearing a mask chills their exercise of First Amendment political and associational freedoms. The plaintiffs further argue that the governor's executive order violates state law because it conflicts with a legislatively enacted statute, and that by passing the executive order the governor was unlawfully exercising legislative power.