On February 25, 2016, Chief Judge Tunheim of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota ruled that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit can proceed in Doe v. Jesson (now Doe v. Piper) against Emily Johnson Piper, in her official capacity as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services and Lori Swanson, in her official capacity as Minnesota Attorney General. In this ruling, the Court eliminated all procedural obstacles thrown at the plaintiffs by the defendants, and will require that important, novel constitutional questions regarding the rights of parents under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses will be answered in this litigation. The Court did dismiss Samuel Moose, in his official capacity as Commissioner of Health and Human Services for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, but that dismissal will have no impact on plaintiffs’ goal in this litigation – to strike down an unconstitutional law that infringes upon the right of fit, biological, Indian parents to choose the proper upbringing for their children. A copy of the opinion can be read here: Doe Order
Newmark Storms Law Office is working on this litigation with Mark D. Fiddler of Fiddler Law Office, P.A. and Dan Rasmus, of Hovland and Rasmus, PLLC.