Judge explains why he swore in nearly all House DFLers early

The sniping continues between Republicans and Democrats in the Minnesota House ahead of Tuesday’s start of the 2025 legislative session, and the rancor took an unusual turn Sunday when members of the DFL House caucus held an alleged swearing-in ceremony.

The event was private and unannounced to the public, coming as a surprise to Republicans who called the ceremony illegitimate, saying it violated Minnesota state law.

Retired Hennepin County Chief Judge Kevin Burke presided over the ceremony and joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer Monday to talk about the hushed affair.

How did this event happen and why were you selected to preside?

I don’t know why I was selected to preside. I got a call from the [DFL Speaker Melissa Hortman] — would I be willing to do the swearing in? I have sworn in many public officials over the years [and] I've been on the bench since 1984. Frankly, it’s a little bit like calling up a judge and saying, ‘Would you do a wedding for me on Sunday night,’ and I went.

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There were the legislators there. They had their families. There was no partisanship for the whole thing. I mean, they were upbeat. There was nobody bashing the Republicans or saying ‘we’ll get them,’ or any of that other kind of stuff. It was what you would expect at a joyous ceremony in which these people got elected, they took an oath. There were a lot of pictures taken.

What did the speaker tell you about why this needed to happen? Did she mention it allows DFL members to be paid even if they don’t show up for work on Monday?

No, nobody talked anything about that… But it’s not that unusual, at least in my experience, you occasionally have special elections where there are private swearing ins. I kind of recall one where there was an elderly parent who clearly would not have been able to attend a public event, and so the person wanted to be sworn in so her mom could see her take the oath. So we did it in an unusual situation. So from my perspective, my role was pretty simple. It’s: Read something that’s less than 40 seconds, raise your hand, stand there, take a few pictures and leave.

While there’ve been several instances of lawmakers taking their oath beyond the Capitol, I can’t recall an entire caucus doing so. This, too, was an unannounced, private ceremony. Did that give you pause to participate?

Well, I didn’t know it was unannounced… until I saw something on Facebook or Twitter or something where somebody was complaining about [it being] unannounced. But from my perspective, I didn’t know it was unannounced, and there was nothing that would indicate that.

There was no surreptitious stuff. The parking lot was full. There were lots of people there. It was well-organized. So from my perspective, it really wasn’t a big deal… Nobody said anything inappropriate or even partisan. So from my perspective, I don’t really get the complaint about that. The bottom line is if you’re a really partisan Republican, and you did know about it, what were you going to do, go try and disrupt it?

Republicans call this a stunt. Did it serve the public to do something like this outside the Capitol when everyone’s supposed to be sworn in on Tuesday?

I can’t, I don’t, I really don't have any comment about that… Look, they’re in a disagreement. The only reference to this was the speaker saying that they hoped to negotiate up until the last minute and resolve the differences they have, but it was not a big part of why they were there. It was none of the tenor of the place.

So it really, to me, had the feel of a typical swearing-in of a bunch of people who needed to get sworn in. And I’m not trying to be dismissive of this. My first job was for the Office of Senate Counsel in the 1971 session that ended up with the Senate being split 50-50 and they didn’t seat a Republican… there was litigation and all that other stuff. So, you know, I’m not naive about this, but the oath part on Sunday night with pictures and all that other stuff, to me, was not even a footnote in the political story that people legitimately are interested in.