The DFL thinks it writes the law as it goes UPDATED

After the DFL's illegitimate 'swearing in stunt', it's apparent that the DFL thinks that whatever it does is the law. Steve Simon, Minnesota's partisan DFL Secretary of State, gaveled the House into session. After that, "Chief Judge of Appeals Jennifer Frisch administered the oath of office to those members who remained in their assigned places on the House floor. Simon then—as he had promised he would do last week—administered a roll call and declared that the 67 members in the chamber did not constitute a quorum. He then proceeded to pound his gavel and declared the day’s floor session adjourned." That's when the fireworks started.

Rep. Harry Niska made a motion to object to Simon’s declaration that there was no quorum. Rep. Niska said "You do not have authority over the House of Representatives. Minnesota law requires the members of the House of Representatives to meet at noon on Tuesday in the House chamber. As you can see, the DFL Caucus has violated the law for the express purpose of preventing the House from organizing and beginning its work."

It isn't difficult to picture the DFL going crazy after the GOP took the anti-Gazelka stance of not letting the DFL push the GOP around. It's long past due. Check this out:

The DFL is skating on thin ice. Walter Hudson provides the receipts: Point 1 is the key:
No where in either the state constitution or state law is a quorum defined as 68 members. Rather, the constitution says, “A majority of each house constitutes a quorum…” While the denominator of a majority is usually 134, we currently only have 133 members because the Democrats ran a perjurer to represent a district he didn’t live in, and that perjurer has been properly barred from serving. A majority of 133 is 67, period.

This issue was resolved by the framers of our state constitution when an amendment to the document was offered that would have altered it to read as modern Democrats desire. The amendment was rejected after debate among delegates who explicitly discussed the implications and expressed their intent. A majority is “a majority of the members sworn in.”

Check this out:

This isn't that complicated. The Secretary of State's role is strictly ceremonial. His role comes without governing authority. Without constitutional governing authority, Steve Simon is just another DFL blowhard.

Finally, there's a constitutional principle that's working against the DFL. That principle is called Separation of Powers. In the federal constitution, the legislative branch's responsibilities are outlined in Article I of the Constitution. Article II outlines the Executive Branch's responsibilities while Article III outlines the Judicial Branch's responsibilities. The Secretary of State is part of the Executive Branch, which means Steve Simon can't exercise authority over the Legislative Branch. Once you learn the Constitution, these things become quite simple.

UPDATE: Check this out:

Finally, in January 2012, an increasingly frustrated Obama took action. He declared that, regardless of the pro forma sessions, he considered the Senate to actually be in recess — and therefore that could appoint those four nominees unilaterally. "Gimmicks do not override the President's constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer wrote. But conservatives called these actions blatantly unconstitutional, and even some liberals agreed. Soon enough, a lawsuit was filed calling an NLRB decision illegitimate because it was handed down by those nominees.
What did the SCOTUS rule? Check it out:
In the end, the Supreme Court was unanimous that Obama’s contested appointments were unconstitutional. “We hold that, for purposes of the Recess Appointments Clause, the Senate is in session when it says it is," wrote Justice Stephen Breyer.
How that applies here

The legislative Branch determines when the Legislative Branch has adjourned, either when it's adjourned for the day, for a recess or longer.

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