Meaningful Seeds: 2026 Legislative Session Recap

By Mabel Malhotra and Will Cooley

This legislative session, Minnesota lawmakers came together to decide which bills to pass during one of the most traumatic eras in our state’s history. The 2026 session came just eight months after State Representative Melissa Hortman’s tragic assassination, six months after a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, and right in the thick of ICE’s occupation and terrorization of our state. In light of all this, the tied legislature was challenged with how best to spend our tax dollars.

Our legislative goals at the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) are always to move our criminal legal system towards one that is equitable, accountable, and restorative in delivering justice. While we may not have passed a slew of bills this year, MNJRC continued to cultivate meaningful progress—engaging community members, testifying at hearings, meeting with legislators—towards a truly just criminal legal system.

Here’s what we accomplished this session, by the numbers:

• We jacketed ten of our priority bills, meaning they had a legislative author and were introduced:

  • Pretrial Data Transparency Act (HF 1775 / SF 1908)

  • Nonfatal Shootings Clearance Grants (HF 2742 / SF 3347)

  • Eliminate Random Drug Testing for SNAP Beneficiaries (HF 1900 / SF 2868)

  • Federal Government Accountability: Cause of Action for Violations of Civil Rights (HF 3414 / SF 3629)

  • Expanding Investigative Capacity Through Pension Exceptions (SF 5308)

  • Improving Sexual Assault Investigations Through Better Training (HF 4358)

  • Investigative Specialist Grant Program (HF 4944 / SF 5286)

  • Smart Drug Testing for Supervised Release (HF 2968 / SF 4178)

  • Graduated Sanctions for Supervision Technical Violations (SF 5215)

  • End Public Defender Fees (HF 4633)

• We got one  bill passed into law:

  • Nonfatal Shootings Clearance Grants: As of 2024, not even half of violent crimes in Minnesota are being solved. The data tells us that higher solve rates deter future crime. This bill directs state resources toward prioritizing nonfatal shooting investigations, making Minnesota safer. (HF 2742 / SF 3347)

• Four  of our bills were heard in committees

• We attended 15+  legislative meetings, speaking with lawmakers about our justice priorities and making community voices heard

• We delivered 11  testimonies (four verbal and seven letters) for lawmakers’ consideration, providing data-based arguments grounded in our values, either in support of or opposition to a bill

  • With the Pretrial Justice Coalition, we testified at an informational hearing on our bail system, introducing a constitutional amendment that would allow us to transform our wealth-based system per our report recommendations

  • Alongside the Impact Minnesota Coalition, we testified for the Eliminate Random Drug Testing for SNAP Beneficiaries bill which would eliminate the 10-year random drug testing provision that people with a felony drug conviction are subject to when receiving SNAP benefits.

• With the Justice For All Coalition, we worked with our partners to mobilize 100+  people for the annual Day on the Hill to meet with legislators, build community advocacy skills, and amplify our concerns at the People’s House

  
  

This session, we at MNJRC are proud to have continued planting meaningful seeds for transformation alongside our community. With the Pretrial Justice Coalition, we introduced a constitutional amendment that could replace our money-based pretrial system with one that actually makes us safer. We supported a bill that would provide Minnesotans with the mechanisms to hold federal officials, such as ICE agents, accountable for violating their civil rights. We educated lawmakers on smart, evidence-backed solutions to the safety issues affecting our communities.

Everything our state faced in the last year certainly and rightly shaped lawmakers’ priorities this session. And still, it’s not lost on us that these atrocities are deeply in conversation with issues of public safety, community wellbeing, accountability, and restoration. How do we prevent political violence and mass shootings? How do we hold people accountable for committing them? How do we effectively respond when the federal government weaponizes our criminal legal system, and how do we heal the harm caused? The policies MNJRC and our partners advocate for seek to address these same questions as we shape how justice is administered in Minnesota.

And it's never lost on us that our criminal legal system, as it functions today, harms communities—especially Black, Brown, and poor Minnesotans—undermines safety, and poses a great threat to the fabric of our state. As moments of great tragedy come and go, we cannot forget the constant assignment of imagining and creating a justice system that is equitable, accountable, and restorative. And so the work continues.

Thank you to the lawmakers, community members, advocates, and organizations who share our vision and commitment to transforming Minnesota’s criminal legal system.

Learn more at mnjrc.org/policy.