Calling a city ordinance requiring landlords to give tenants voter registration information “compelled speech,” the Minnesota Voters Alliance and a handful of property owners are suing the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights.
The suit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
The plaintiffs are at odds with an ordinance, approved Aug. 8 by the St. Paul City Council, that requires landlords to supply voter registration information to new tenants at the time of lease signing or occupancy. Failure to do so is considered a petty misdemeanor.
“Minneapolis and Saint Paul violate a landlord’s right not to speak when the cities, as a matter of policy and ideology, require the landlord to inform and provide information to tenants regarding where to register to vote or to otherwise exercise that right,” the lawsuit states. “It is compelled speech to engage landlords to act as couriers of the respective municipalities’ ideological messages to prospective tenants.”
St. Paul council members supporting the ordinance said the rule would be helpful in reminding new residents that they should register to vote; that landlords should consider themselves partners with the city in helping to enhance voter turnout; and that the burden was not undue since the city was providing the information.
“We stand with Minneapolis in support of the interests advanced by these ordinances, and in protecting the fundamental rights of all residents within the City of Saint Paul,” St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson said in a statement to the Pioneer Press in response to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs took issue with the penalty to landlords who don’t comply, saying the landlords are following the ordinance because they are fearful of prosecution.
“Saint Paul has acted either intentionally, recklessly, or with callous indifference to the constitutionally protected First Amendment rights not to speak, have threatened MVA member owner-landlords with penalties if they fail to be couriers of the City’s policy,” the lawsuit stated.
The Minnesota Voters Alliance is a watchdog group best known for spearheading a case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court invalidating the state’s broad restrictions on voters wearing “political” attire to the polls.
At the Aug. 8 meeting, St. Paul City Council member Amy Brendmoen described the voter registration ordinance as “one piece of a puzzle” to boosting voter turnout in the city.
