Prof. Myron Orfield Quoted in MinnPost About Cities Possibly Passing Firearm Restrictions

Professor Myron Orfield was quoted in MinnPost about Minnesota cities attempting to pass firearm restrictions. In September, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, and several suburban mayors called for state legislators to allow cities to enact their own gun control ordinances, despite a 40-year-old state law that prohibits local governments from regulating firearms. If the state legislature doesn’t pass stricter gun regulations, legal experts said cities could try to craft ordinances that don’t run afoul of existing law, or that fall within a conception of local powers that the Minnesota Supreme Court can accept. Prof. Orfield said state courts in California and New York have recently expanded their conception of “home rule” and allowed local governments to enforce ordinances — such as those allowing for sweeping rent stabilization — that would have been “inconceivable” 10 years ago. But, he said, it’s unclear how Minnesota’s Supreme Court would treat such attempts because “home rule powers are not well defined in Minnesota.”