Overview
- A U.S. District Court ruling, issued Friday by Judge Katherine Menendez, threw out the Trump administration’s case and marked the first courtroom loss in its series of state-targeted lawsuits.
- Menendez found Minnesota’s law ties eligibility to attending a Minnesota high school for three years and graduating or earning a GED, which she said is a school-based connection rather than residency.
- The court said the state offers the same tuition and aid access to U.S. citizens who meet the same criteria, so the federal statute barring residency-based benefits did not apply.
- The judge also ruled the Department of Justice lacked standing to sue Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, removing them from the case.
- The decision keeps in place in-state rates and access to the North Star Promise Scholarship for qualifying students from families earning under $80,000, while related DOJ suits against six other states continue.