Press Release

AG Ellison: ‘Governor carefully turning the dial on reopening Minnesota’

Attorney General supports new executive orders extending peacetime emergency, protecting workers and vulnerable people, and carefully turning the dial on reopening Minnesota’

May 13, 2020 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today issued the following statement on Governor Tim Walz’s new executive orders that extend the COVID-19 peacetime emergency, protect workers and vulnerable people, and carefully begin turning the dial on reopening Minnesota:

“As a member of the Executive Council, I support Governor Walz’s new executive orders and will vote to approve them this evening. As Attorney General and Minnesota’s chief legal officer, Governor Walz is continuing to act fully within his legal and constitutional authority in issuing all these orders. My office is ready to and will defend any and all of them, as well as the Governor’s power to issue them.

“I appreciate the care and sensitivity that the Governor is bringing to gradually turning the dial on reopening Minnesota. He’s not just carelessly flipping a switch: he’s intentionally relying on epidemiology, testing, and the science of human behavior in a way that will make life easier while also protecting life. I’m especially glad to see the protections for workers and vulnerable people. I strongly support those measures. He’s also relying on Minnesotans’ strength and trust to continue to be safe and look out for one another, while also extending the peacetime emergency to be ready to act if need be.

“I know this moment has been difficult economically and socially for so many of us. While these measures will ease some of those difficulties, our responsibilities as a people for our own health and the health of everyone else are far from over. I join the Governor in strongly reiterating that if you can work from home, you must work from home — with emphasis on ‘must.’ More broadly, it is the moral duty of all of us as Minnesotans and human beings to continue to practice social distancing, to wear masks in public to ensure the safety of all workers and vulnerable Minnesotans, and to follow all the provisions of the order to keep ourselves and each other safe. That shouldn’t be hard, because Minnesotans naturally care for each other. Now more than ever, we’ll get through this together.”