Peter K Butler v. Shari Moore

Syllabus

Appellant challenges the dismissal of his petition under Minnesota's election law, in which he sought to challenge respondents' process for reviewing signatures on citizen petitions for proposed charter amendments and ballot initiatives in Saint Paul. Appellant sought relief with respect to a future petition to place a proposed amendment to the city charter on the November 2024 ballot, for which he is currently collecting signatures, and a past petition to place a question on the November 2022 ballot regarding funding for early childhood education. The district court (1) dismissed without prejudice appellant's claim regarding the future petition on the ground that the claim is not ripe and (2) dismissed with prejudice appellant's claim regarding the past petition on the ground that the claim is barred by laches. Because we conclude that the district court did not err, we affirm.