Congrats? Clarence Thomas Repeatedly Quotes U of M Law School Hack in Birthright Citizenship Dissent.

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

Local Opportunist Hits the Big Time

The good news is that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the plain text of the Constitution on Tuesday, restating that people who are born in the U.S. are U.S. citizens, just like the 14th Amendment says. 

The bad news is that four justices don’t think those words mean what an ordinary reader of English, and U.S. courts for over 160 years, have interpreted them as. (Despite the 6-3 vote, Justice Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence that he thinks the Constitution does not guarantee birthright citizenship.) 

That means, over the course of a year, a once laughably fringe belief has elbowed its way to the conservative legal mainstream.

In case you can’t tell, Ilan Wurman is quite excited about this. A professor at the University of Minnesota law school, he has a professional interest in the matter. He’s been tirelessly creating a shoddy body of scholarship in support of that position. As his reward, he was repeatedly quoted in a dissent by our worst justice (I know, it’s a close race to the bottom), Clarence Thomas.

Anyway, this is how right-wing “legal scholarship” works. Professors like Wurman churn out journal articles in support of indefensible positions, rendering them defensible. Someday, he’ll probably be awarded a federal judgeship for his efforts. But what do I know? I was just a B student at best in law school. Maybe if I’d been better at arguing that words don’t mean what they say I’d be a constitutional scholar. 

Here Comes the Money

Maybe you’ve heard of Uline, the Wisconsin-based shipping and business supply company, or at least know the name. You’re less likely to be familiar with its owner, Richard Uihlein, a major conservative donor, and almost certainly unfamiliar with the PAC he funds, Restore Sanity. 

But as Michelle Griffith of the Minnesota Reformer reported Wednesday, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth has received about $1.1 million from this national PAC, almost all Uihlein’s cash. What kinds of ideological strings might come attached to a gift so large? Here's the Uline founder speaking in a rare 2018 interview with the National Review: “My father would talk about the importance of capitalism and the evils of socialism."

This cash infusion puts Demuth far ahead of her rival Republican candidates for governor: Kendall Qualls, who’s received the GOP endorsement, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who… well, whatever. It’s also a harbinger of how much money will flood into Minnesota in the year ahead from national interests.

Save Our Signs Documents Erased History 

Last July, we wrote about Save Our Signs, a project run by several Minnesota librarians, historians, and data experts that catalogs the Trump administration’s censorship of National Park Service signs, which have been scrubbed of historical facts that reflect badly on the actions of our perfect government.

This week, SOS published some of what it found in Washington, D.C. At the African American Civil War Memorial, for instance, the text "African Americans had proven themselves in battle but the struggle for equality didn't end. It would take almost 100 years for Black troops to fight alongside their White comrades in integrated units” was replaced with: "These men paved the way for future generations to serve and lead in defense of the nation they helped to save."

A placard about founder George Mason no longer mentions that he owned slaves, and another about the New Deal now omits the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II, as well as the fact that the National Housing Act led to redlining and segregated housing.

Do You Hear That? Nothing!

You may have experienced a slightly more peaceful lunch period than you expected this afternoon. The city of Minneapolis canceled its monthly weather siren test, which ordinarily takes place at 1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month, because there is a possibility of actual severe weather today. So if you do hear sirens, panic! 

This decision disappointed a passel of obsessives on Bluesky who like to post “awoo” when the “lunch siren” goes off. But fear not, awoo crew: The sirens will be tested next Wednesday, as the city announced in this cute lil post… 

See all the fun you’re missing if you’re still hanging out on Twitter?