Minnesota Supreme Court Opinions

Orders on Petitions for Further Review

Granted

1.  Sierra Club, et al., vs. Public Utilities Commission – A25-0528

Issue: Does the Commission have authority to exercise the State’s right to opt out of a federal regulation permitting the aggregation of load reduction through ARCs bidding into the wholesale electricity market?

Issue for Cross Review: Did the PUC’s failure to follow Minnesota Administrative Procedures Act (“MAPA”) rulemaking procedures invalidate the opt-out rule?

2.  State of Minnesota vs. Andy Ralph Garbow – A24-1985

Issues: (1) Whether violations of the constitutional right to effective confrontation and a fair trial occurred? (2) Whether a constitutional deprivation of the right to confront one’s accusers can be harmless where the only evidence of guilt for a child sex abuse crime is the accusing child’s testimony? (3) Whether a child witness in a sex abuse case may be considered unavailable as a matter of law where the child becomes upset during cross examination?

3.  State of Minnesota vs. Desean James Solomon – A23-0946

Issue: Whether a police officer, who was not an eyewitness to the crime, can interpret and narrate a surveillance video and identify the defendant as the person who committed the crime within the officer’s testimony at trial?

4.  State of Minnesota vs. Danny Markeith Jones – A25-0053

Issues: When deciding whether a warrantless arrest is supported by probable cause, may a reviewing court (or a police officer in the field) assume the truth of assertions made by an informant who is admittedly involved in criminal activity?

5.  State of Minnesota vs. Gregory Maurice Oats, Jr. – A24-1863

Issue: Must Oats’s convictions be reversed where retrying Oats after the district court unnecessarily discharged the jury without obtaining Oats’s consent violated Oats’s double jeopardy rights?

6.  State of Minnesota vs. Michelle Lee Weisen – A25-0131

Issue: Whether law enforcement’s strategic use of trickery and deception with respect to its authority as part of a warrantless arrest renders both an admission and consent to search one’s person involuntary?

7.  State of Minnesota vs. Stephani Marie Boyum – A24-2024

Issue: Minnesota Statute § 152.025 makes it a crime for a person to “unlawfully possesses one or more mixtures containing a controlled substance classified in Schedule I, II, III, or IV.” In the absence of a defendant’s prior drug-related conviction, the state must prove that the “amount of the controlled substance possessed” is 0.25 grams or more in order for the crime to constitute a felony.

1. Does the statute’s requirement that “the amount of the controlled substance possessed” meet a felony threshold require the state to prove the actual amount of the controlled substance the defendant possessed, rather than merely the weight of the mixture containing the controlled substance?
2. If so, does the “controlled substance” of methamphetamine nonetheless include any mixture containing methamphetamine such that the state’s proof of the weight of the mixture in this case was sufficient?

Granted/Stayed

8.  Dametria White, et al., as co-trustees for the next-of-kin of Helayne Bass, deceased vs. Park Nicollet Clinic – A25-0729

Issue: Is § 573.02, Subd. 3’s oath requirement a substantive requirement for trustee appointment such that, if it is not satisfied within § 573.02’s Subd. 1’s limitation period, it cannot effectively be cured at a later date.

Stayed pending final disposition in Keith D Hagfors, as Trustee for the Next of Kin of Sara E Hagfors vs. Fairview Health Services, et al., A24-1539.

9.  Weidner Apartment Homes vs. B.F. – A25-0951

Issue: Does the Expungement Provision violate separation-of-powers principles by infringing on the judiciary’s authority to decide cases and manage its own records?

Stayed pending final disposition in Sela Investments, Ltd. LLP v. J.H., A24-1380.

Vacate/Remand

10.  State of Minnesota vs. Kacey Emmanuel Kamara – A24-1087

Issue: Police officers testified at Kamara’s trial about precautions they had to take to avoid secondary transfer of DNA. The DNA scientist testified that his analysis could not establish how DNA got onto the gun, that his analysis was based on an assumption that only unrelated people contributed to the DNA mixture on the gun, and that his analysis would have changed if he had known that a relative of Kamara’s could have contributed to the DNA mixture.

There was no evidence at trial that conflicted with the above-listed testimony. Yet the court of appeals disregarded that evidence when determining the circumstances proved.

Did the court of appeals err by disregarding this evidence when no evidence conflicted with it, and was the circumstantial evidence insufficient to prove Kamara possessed the firearm and ammunition found in his fiancée’s apartment?

Stay lifted, decision of the court of appeals vacated, and case remanded to the court of appeals for reconsideration in light of State v. Firkus, 31 N.W.3d 468, (Minn. 2026). 

Denied

11. Alveto Rivera vs. State of Minnesota – A25-1413

12. City of Oakdale, Minnesota vs. Oakdale Marketplace, LLC, et al. – A25-1093

13.  State of Minnesota vs. Deandre Washington Leroy Craig – A23-1389

14. In re the Estate of Frank E. Messin, Deceased – A25-0880

15.  In re the Marriage of: Catrina M Rued vs. Joseph D Rued – A25-1497

16. In re the Marriage of: Jamie Natalie Gore vs. Seth Patrick Gore – A25-0575

17. In re the Marriage of: Kallys Albert, Sr. vs. Emelda U O’Albert – A25-1987

18.  In re the Marriage of: Sarah Nicole Smith vs. Jonathan George Smith – A25-0258, A25-0616

19.  In the Marriage of: Jeneen Marie Molldrem vs. Kevin Daniel Molldrem – A25-0477

20. Matter of the University of Minnesota vs. Haishan Yang – A25-0342

21.  MJ Property Holdings, LLC d/b/a Midwest Ethanol, LLC vs. Solv-All Alliance Group, LLC, and Scott A. Marincek – A25-1238

22.  Shawn Patrick Agar vs. State of Minnesota – A25-0962

23. State of Minnesota vs. Blake Lawrence Fuhol – A25-0545

24.  State of Minnesota vs. Brandon Leigh Stevens – A25-0275

25.  State of Minnesota vs. Deanna Lea King – A25-0189

26. State of Minnesota vs. Edward Louis Johnson, Jr. – A25-0184

27. State of Minnesota vs. Farhan Mohamed Hassan – A24-1561

28. State of Minnesota vs. George Luis Ramirez – A25-0344

29.  State of Minnesota vs. Justice King Whitelaw – A24-1376

30. State of Minnesota vs. Kevin Stephen Ryan – A25-0198

31. State of Minnesota vs. William Arthur Butler – A25-0595

32.  The Bank of New York Mellon fka The Bank of New York, as Trustee for the certificate holders of Cwalt, Inc. alternative Loan Trust, 2005-27, Mortgage pass through certificates series 2005-27 vs. Scott B. Auld, Cindy M. Auld, Parties in Possession – A25-1170

33.  Willis Jonathon David Carmack vs. Valley Green Park, et al. – A25-0732

DENIED PETITIONS FOR FURTHER REVIEW PREVIOUSLY STAYED PENDING STATE V. FIRKUS, A23-0973 

34.  Jonathan Samael Greyblood vs. State of Minnesota – A23-1930

35.  State of Minnesota vs. Anthony Lee Williams – A23-1327

36.  State of Minnesota vs. Antonio Direll Hugh – A23-0102

37.  State of Minnesota vs. Brandon Marquies Jones – A24-1976

38.  State of Minnesota vs. Detwan Cortell Allen – A24-1174

39.  State of Minnesota vs. Estaban J Ramos, Jr. – A23-1931

40.  State of Minnesota vs. Ethan Raymond Hardy – A24-1724

41.  State of Minnesota vs. Jacquelyn Jeanne Libis – A24-1613

42.  State of Minnesota vs. James Edward Jones, III – A23-1784

43.  State of Minnesota vs. James Michael Peterson – A23-0767

44.  State of Minnesota vs. James Michale Thomson – A24-1901

45.  State of Minnesota vs. Jimmie Dunlap, Jr. – A24-0751

46.  State of Minnesota vs. Kelci Marie Meyers – A24-1471

47.  State of Minnesota vs. Lionell Bailey – A23-1301

48.  State of Minnesota vs. Matthew Phillip Ecker – A24-1021

49.  State of Minnesota vs. Me’Darian Ledale McGruder – A24-1075

50.  State of Minnesota vs. Nathaniel Mark Thompson – A24-0782

51.  State of Minnesota vs. Shaketio Antonio Webster – A24-0371

52.  State of Minnesota vs. Xavier Lee Hudson – A24-0727

Filed April 24, 2026

1.  State of Minnesota vs. Austin Nathaniel Ouellette – A25-0402

2.  State of Minnesota vs. Romaine Anthony Reid – A24-1128

3.  State of Minnesota vs. Oluwatoyin Emmanuel Aina – A25-0740