Capitol View for June 19

Good morning. Rest in peace, ‘Say Hey Kid’ Willie Mays — one of baseball’s best ever and for a time a Minneapolis Miller.

Cities around Minnesota are celebrating Juneteenth today. The holiday is also called “Freedom Day,” which commemorates the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas, two years after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation that freed enslaved Black people. Juneteenth was recognized as an official state holiday in Minnesota in 2023 and given federal status in 2021. Here’s a list of events celebrating the holiday around the state.

More than 15,000 Minnesotans have been registered to vote since the launch of Minnesota’s automatic voter registration system. Automatic voter registration debuted in April after legislation paved the way for the system last year. Now, when you renew a state-issued ID like a driver’s license, your information will automatically be sent to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office. The office will determine eligibility and then connect with local election officials. Secretary of State Steve Simon estimates the new system could register 120,000 Minnesotans to vote before the November election.

The FBI is investigating Minnesota autism centers for possible Medicaid fraud. The Minnesota Reformer’s Deena Winter reports that while details of the investigation are unknown, the growth of spending on the autism program has exploded in recent years. The number of providers has increased 700 percent in the past five years and the amount paid to providers during that time has increased 3,000 percent, according to data obtained by the Reformer. Winter will be on Morning Edition at 8:50 a.m. to talk about the investigation.

Minnesota’s bump stock ban and binary trigger law will not be affected by last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court decision undid a 2018 federal rule that effectively banned bump stocks, which allows a weapon to fire dozens of bullets in a matter of seconds. But it won’t have an effect on Minnesota’s laws. Josie Albertson-Grove of the Star Tribune reports that’s because the Supreme Court decision focused on how the rule was made and doesn’t answer the question of whether bump stocks and other devices that help fire rounds faster are protected by the Second Amendment. While the decision does not challenge Minnesota’s laws, it could make it easier to challenge other firearm policies set by executive-branch agencies in the future.

Half a million immigrants could eventually get U.S. citizenship under a new plan from President Joe Biden. The Biden administration announced yesterday that they will allow certain spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship. To qualify, an immigrant must have lived in the United States for 10 years and be married to a U.S. citizen. Despite actions from the administration restricting border crossings earlier this month that spurred sharp criticisms from within the Democratic party, Biden’s campaign hopes to provide a contrast to Trump who has pledged to deport millions if reelected.

The New York Court of Appeals declined quickly to hear former President Donald Trump’s appeal of the gag order in his hush money case.The Court of Appeals found Trump's appeal to lift the gag order does not raise “substantial” constitutional issues that would warrant an immediate intervention. During the trial, Trump repeatedly railed against the gag order, which prevented him from commenting on witnesses, jurors and others involved in the case. At one point, the judge held Trump in contempt of court and fined him $10,000 for violating the gag order. The trial judge is expected to rule soon on a defense request to lift the gag order.