The Minnesota Court of Appeals handed down a major decision for the state’s firearm owners, ruling that a recent ban on binary triggers violates the state constitution. The court affirmed a lower court’s decision that the legislature acted unconstitutionally when it placed the firearms restriction inside a massive, unrelated 2024 omnibus bill.
Under the Minnesota Constitution’s single-subject clause, lawmakers are legally required to keep bills focused on a single topic to prevent “logrolling”—the practice of burying controversial provisions inside giant packages of unrelated legislation. In the case Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus v. Walz, the appeals court agreed with Ramsey County District Court Judge Leonardo Castro that the binary trigger ban was not germane to the core subject of the bill it was attached to. As a result, the provision has been severed from the rest of the bill and remains unenforceable across the state.
While the court completely struck down the trigger ban, it declined to throw out the entire underlying omnibus bill, keeping the rest of the package intact.
Gun rights advocates, who brought the lawsuit forward, celebrated the narrow remedy as a direct win for both transparent lawmaking and the Second Amendment.
“This is a complete victory on the question we asked the court to decide,” said Bryan Strawser, Chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “The Walz administration and anti-gun legislators tried to sneak a firearms ban into an omnibus bill where it didn’t belong. The district court said no. The Court of Appeals said no. Minnesota’s Constitution, not legislative gamesmanship, controls how laws get made in this state, and Minnesota gun owners just proved it twice.”
Representatives from the legal arm of the caucus noted that the decision sets a strict precedent for future legislative sessions.
“Today’s ruling is a warning to every legislator who thinks the single-subject clause is optional,” said Rob Doar, President of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center. “Two courts have now told the Legislature that you cannot bury gun control provisions inside unrelated bills and call it lawmaking. If anti-gun lawmakers try this again in 2026 or beyond, we will be back in court, and we will win again.”
With the appellate court’s affirmation, the state’s restriction on binary triggers is officially dead, ensuring that laws in Minnesota must be passed transparently, one subject at a time.
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