Minnesota lawmakers would lose their equivalent of “get-out-of-jail-free cards” for drunken driving during legislative sessions under a bill approved by a House committee Wednesday night.
The measure would clarify that driving under the influence does not fall under the “legislative immunity” provision in the Minnesota Constitution that protects lawmakers from arrests while the Legislature is in session “in all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace.”
Eight political science students from Concordia University in St. Paul launched a campaign to make sure that drunken driving would not be overlooked for lawmakers.
“We don’t think legislators should be above the laws they write,” said Adam Goinz, one of the students.
At the students’ request, Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, introduced a bill that would define driving while impaired as a “breach of the peace.”
“This bill does no harm, and it has the potential to do good,” Winkler told the House Government Operations Committee before it passed the measure on an 11-2 voice vote.
It now goes to the House Public Safety Committee. Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, is carrying the companion bill in the Senate, but it has not had a committee hearing.
There’s no evidence any lawmaker has tried to invoke immunity to avoid a DWI charge.
But the students’ political science professor, Jayne Jones, said she had her class check the driving records of all 201 legislators and found that while a handful of them were convicted of drunken driving between legislative sessions, none was arrested while the Legislature was in session.
As a class project, her students first researched, drafted and lobbied for the immunity bill in 2012. It passed through several committees without opposition but died after failing to get a floor vote in either chamber.
After those hearings, Jones said, she received 10 emails from St. Paul police officers and state troopers indicating they knew of lawmakers who had invoked immunity to avoid a DWI charge.
While no lawmaker has publicly criticized the bill, the students said they have encountered opposition in private meetings.
Student Hope Baker said, “One senator told me, ‘I would rather have a legislator drive drunk than miss a vote.’
“Nobody should be able to get in a vehicle and drive impaired, regardless of who they are,” she said.
Legislative immunity is a tradition that stems from the struggles between the English parliament and the country’s kings. Some monarchs had lawmakers arrested to prevent them from voting, but the 17th-century English bill of rights granted them protection from arbitrary arrests.
The U.S. Constitution provides immunity from arrest for members of Congress, and 43 state constitutions, including Minnesota’s, offer similar safeguards to state lawmakers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Jones’ students have been working on passing a variety of legislation for several years. This year, they have proposed six new laws ranging from expanding access to dental care to protecting the privacy of students’ social media passwords.
