Text: Summary: The Legislature may not meet after the first Monday following the third Saturday in May. The Legislature may pass bills on the final Monday in the odd-numbered year, but may not pass bills on the final Monday of the even-numbered year (so must finish work on bills on Sunday that year). Though a legislative day begins at 7am and extends to 7am on the next calendar day, it appears to us that the Legislature does not apply this extension to the final Monday in the odd-numbered year or the final Sunday of the even-numbered year, and instead considers midnight on those days to be their hard and fast deadline. Details: Minn. Const. Article 4, section 12 details adjournment requirements - that the Legislature "shall not meet in regular session, nor in any adjournment thereof, after the first Monday following the third Saturday in May of any year." Article 4, section 21 prohibits passage of bills on "the day prescribed for adjournment." However, a Minnesota Supreme Court case determined that the final day of the first year of the biennial session, the odd-numbered year, is not the day of adjournment for purposes of this constitutional provision. As an example, in 2023, the Legislature must adjourn by Monday, May 22, 2023, and they may pass bills that Monday. In 2024, they must adjourn by Monday, May 20, 2024, but they cannot pass bills on that Monday. A "legislative day" is defined in statute at Minn. Stat. 3.012, which states a "legislative day" begins at 7am and continues until 7am of the following calendar day. As we understand it, this is what allows the Legislature to hold a floor session until 6am but not have to burn two legislative days in the process. However, our general understanding is that this extension until 7am does not apply to the final day of adjournment. Though the Legislature can work past midnight at other times, they must adjourn by midnight on Monday in the odd-numbered years. They may meet on that last Monday in even-numbered years, but they must finalize bill passage by midnight on Sunday in even-numbered years. We have yet to identify a solid source to back this up. From reading through news stories discussing the end of session, it does seem that a deadline of midnight for bill passage was also in place in even numbered years - meaning the Legislature would have had to finish their work on bills by midnight on Sunday in those even numbered years. Our Sessions page discusses a few times when the Legislature met past midnight at the end of session, but those were all well before the constitutionally prescribed deadline. There are some AG opinions that touch on this question, particularly about passing bills at the end of session: AG Opinion re last day to pass bills, 5/15/1981 AG Opinion re last day to pass bills, 1/29/1979 AG Opinion re last day of session, 3/4/1869 Making Laws also touches on this topic. See "...the last three days of a session..." section on page 93.