Minnesota State Wire

Sen. Carrie Ruud (R-Breezy Point) and other Senate Republicans sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison regarding concerns over Emergency Executive Order 20-33 on May 20. 

The executive order extended Minnesota’s stay-at-home order while also making it a misdemeanor for a business owner, manager or supervisor to require or encourage an employee to violate the executive order. 

In the letter, Senate Republicans expressed their issues with the governor’s executive order.

“At this point, many stores and restaurants are just anxious to reopen and more than willing to take all the necessary precautions to do so,” Ruud wrote in the letter. “Gov. Walz’s executive orders have gone too far and it is time to bring our small businesses back into focus. Business owners are seeing their employees and communities struggle and they are doing everything they can to make it through this. Minnesotans should not face criminal penalties for safely and responsibly running their businesses.”

The letter also mentioned the actions taken against Shady’s Bar and its owners, who received a temporary restraining order from the State of Minnesota to keep them from reopening their business, saying that it “sends a heavy-handed message to small businesses and workers who seek to safely reopen just like their competitors.”