St. Paul (AP) Minnesota's handgun permitting law was declared unconstitutional Tuesday by a Ramsey County District judge in a lawsuit brought by several churches and other groups.

Judge John Finley said the Legislature violated the state constitution last year by attaching the so-called conceal-and-carry bill with a "totally unrelated bill relating to the Department of Natural Resources." It is estimated that 30% of Minnesota laws are included in legislation with unrelated topics.

Attorney Marshall Tanick, who represented the two original churches in the case, said he expected the decision to affect the entire state.

"It's a rather sweeping decision," he said.

The state constitution prohibits laws from embracing more than one subject.

"Our state has prided itself in its openness in all areas of government. ... This basic Minnesota value is totally frustrated when the Legislature itself clearly violates the underpinnings of such a basic conscience-guided law and constitutional provision," Finley wrote in his opinion.

Lawyers on both sides of the issue were scrambling Tuesday to determine the immediate impact of the ruling.

"That's a real good question that I don't think anyone knows at the moment," said Joe Olson, a Hamline University Law School professor who is president of a group called Concealed Carry Reform Now.

He and Gov. Tim Pawlenty both said they hope the Legislature or state Court of Appeals would reinstate the new law.

Minnesota Attorney General Michael Hatch said he would appeal Finley's ruling for several reasons, including the rigid application of the single-subject rule in the constitution.

He said the Legislature frequently passes laws containing unrelated subjects.

"We do need to get some direction there in terms of what the Legislature should do when it's debating rules and amendments," Hatch said.

David Lillehaug, an attorney who represented several of the church groups, called the bill "by far the most dramatic" example of different subjects combined into one bill in recent years.

"This was uniquely outrageous," he said.

In terms of the gun law, Hatch said Tuesday's ruling would have little effect on handgun permits issued since the law went into effect. "We believe they are valid and will continue to be valid until they expire," he said.

Otherwise, the state's handgun laws essentially will revert to what they were before the conceal-and-carry law was passed. The top law enforcement officer in a given jurisdiction, usually a police chief or sheriff, once again has broad discretion to approve or deny pending applications, he said.

And property owners will no longer need to post "no guns" signs to have the authority to keep guns off their property, as they did after the law was passed, Hatch said.

More than 22,000 Minnesotans have received handgun permits since the law was changed just over a year ago. That's about twice as many permits as were issued the previous year, but well short of projections that as many as 90,000 permits would be issued in the first three years of the new law.

The new law guaranteed a permit to most adults who receive required training, pay an application fee and pass a background check, unlike the old system in which Hatch said top cops had "unbridled discretion" to deny permits.

Private building owners began posting signs at public entrances banning handguns. But the law prevented private establishments from banning firearms in parking lots.

The church leaders filed their lawsuit a week before the law went into effect last year, arguing that it often uses its parking lot and leased buildings for worship services and that the church should be allowed to prohibit guns on its property.

Other congregations from different denominations across the region, as well as nonprofits and the city of Minneapolis, joined the lawsuit.

John Gordon, who represented some nonprofits, called the groups behind the lawsuit "heroes."

"These folks have stood up for themselves and they have stood up for all of us," he said.

Scott Hippert of Family and Children's Service said Minnesota citizens were safer because of the decision.

"This ruling is a strong victory for Minnesota's families, for our children," he said.

Filed last fall in Ramsey County District Court, the lawsuit also contended the law infringed on property rights of the church groups and the city by allowing people with guns to intrude without permission and without compensation on the property owners.

And the church groups say the law violates their guarantees of religious freedom, which the judge agreed with.

Olson said he wasn't surprised by the ruling, but expected the state Court of Appeals might issue a stay in the case, meaning the new law would stay in place while the ruling is appealed.

"This case was destined for the Minnesota Supreme Court from the beginning," Olson said. "The faster it gets there, the better."

Bench becomes hot seat for Finley
Jill Burcum, Star Tribune
July 15, 2004

After shooting down Minnesota's new permit-to-carry gun law Tuesday, Ramsey County District Judge John Finley found himself in a familiar place: at the center of a political fray.

This time it has been generated by his ruling, which garnered headlines and riled gun-rights advocates in Minnesota and across the nation.

Finley, 64, has a long history of serving Ramsey County and perhaps is best known for his 26 years as a county commissioner before he was elected to the bench in 1996. Both as politician and judge, the St. Paul native has weathered his share of controversy.

In 1974, he was a strong advocate for removing the mayor from the Ramsey County Board, ending a decades-old way of doing business.

In 1976, he was disciplined as a lawyer for improperly notarizing documents.

In 1998, he was publicly reprimanded by the Board on Judicial Standards for voting on tax breaks for himself and a legal client when he was still a county commissioner.

More recently, he presided over legal proceedings that generated statewide publicity and scrutiny. One involved journalist Wally Wakefield, who faced a $200-a-day fine for not revealing his source for a news story.

Another involved Eugene Andreotti, who tried to stop the release of sexual harassment complaints filed against him while Andreotti oversaw the Minnesota National Guard.

Now Finley has ruled that the 2003 gun law violated the state Constitution and Minnesota's tradition of clean government.

On Wednesday, those who know Finley said he's probably enjoying the brouhaha.

"He's a scrapper," said Vic Tedesco, a former longtime St. Paul City Council member who has known Finley for years.

"He's not afraid of controversy. He's had it all his life," said Hal Norgard, who served with Finley for 22 years on the Ramsey County Board.

Thoughtful approach

Finley, who declined to provide information for this article, was one of the longest-serving commissioners on the County Board, joining it as a 30-year-old newly minted law school graduate in 1970 and staying for the next 26 years.

Norgard, like many others, remembers Finley as a cool head in a debate and as someone who did his research and thought carefully before making decisions.

"Any of the decisions he ever made, he put a lot of hard work into them. It wasn't like he was jumping off a cliff. He spent a lot of time studying things, I know," he said.

Norgard doesn't recall Finley ever taking a public position on gun control, though many members of the County Board did throughout the years.

Ruby Hunt, who served on the County Board with Finley from 1984 to 1995, also said Finley steered clear of gun issues.

She said Finley was actually more conservative than she thought he would be, especially on budget issues, and remembers him for his "infectious Irish sense of humor" and politeness at board meetings.

Hunt said board members were surprised when the tax break allegations surfaced. However, she said, she wasn't particularly troubled by them.

"I don't think any of the charges or allegations that came up were of the serious kind of nature that you read about in other parts of the country," she said.

But Finley's colleagues on the bench he was elected to in 1996 did take note.

After he achieved a lifelong dream of becoming a judge, Finley's new colleagues in Ramsey County "had some real strong question marks as to what kind of judge he'd be," said former Ramsey County Chief Judge Lawrence Cohen.

But Finley has proved himself in the years since. "He carries his share and is terribly thoughtful," said Cohen, who retired in 2002. "His fellow judges grew highly respectful of him. I've heard just outstanding comments from other judges. ... He's a solid judge."

Cohen had harsh words for anyone thinking that politics drove Finley's legal reasons for nullifying the gun law.

"Hogwash," he said. "I'd be willing to mortgage a house and put in the equity to ... the fact that this was not a political decision, that this was based on what he believed the law would be."

Finley called fair

Ron Maddox, a Finley friend and former longtime St. Paul City Council member, comes from a family of police officers, has a permit to carry a gun and says he believes strongly in exercising his Second Amendment right to bear arms.

But he wasn't too worked up when he heard of Finley's decision.

What people need to know about Finley, Maddox said, is that he's fair and committed to doing the right thing no matter what.

"He'd rather be a spark than an ember," Maddox said. "I guess that's what he's doing here."

The 2003 gun-permit law, often referred to as the conceal-and-carry law, required county sheriffs to honor gun-permit requests by all citizens 21 and older who have undergone safety training and have no other issues that would make it illegal for them to own a firearm. The law does not require the weapon to be concealed.

For now, the state will revert to the system used before the 2003 law went into effect. Minnesotans can still get permits, but local sheriffs have broad discretion in deciding who gets a permit.