Keeping up with the legal jousting between state, federal governments

Keeping up with the legal jousting between state, federal governments

April 17, 2026 · 50 min

About this episode

The episode discusses Minnesota's legal challenges involving the state and federal governments, featuring an interview with Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Minnesota is suing — and has been sued — a lot. There are cases over health care funding, immigration, clean energy policy, election laws, tariffs, diversity policies and much more. Playing point for much of it: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. He’s teamed up with Democratic attorneys general in other states for some of the litigation and has gone solo in other cases. Closer to home, he’s in negotiations with the Legislature over ways to beef up fraud investigations and prosecutions. MPR News politics editor Brian Bakst speaks with Keith Ellison. Later in broadcast, a breakdown on the debate over data centers. We’ll get a look at the projects across the state to build more of the information warehouses are getting pushback. Guests: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison Dan Kraker, correspondent for MPR News based in Duluth Kirsti Marohn​, correspondent for MPR News based in Collegeville Dana Ferguson, political correspondent for MPR News Peter Cox, correspondent for MPR News Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation or subscribe to the Politics Friday podcast on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or RSS .

People in this episode

Host: Brian Bakst

Guests: Keith Ellison, Dan Kraker, Kirsti Marohn, Dana Ferguson, Peter Cox

Topics covered

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Minnesota Public Radio, MPR News

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