Nelson: New Laws Take Effect August 1 in Minnesota

Several new laws passed during the 2024 legislative session will go into effect on August 1, 2024.

“Like the 2024 session results or not, it’s important for citizens to understand how new laws affect them,” Senator Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) said. “I encourage all Minnesotans to familiarize themselves with these changes.”

Key changes include:

• Straw Purchases: Buying a gun for someone who can’t legally own one becomes a felony instead of a gross misdemeanor. This aims to keep more firearms out of the hands of people who legally cannot possess them. The law contains an exception for straw purchases made under a credible threat of harm to the purchaser’s family.
• Booster Seats: New rules specify when children should use rear-facing seats, forward-facing seats, booster seats, and regular seatbelts based on their age and size. Infants under 2 years old must be in rear-facing seats; children 2 and older who have outgrown rear-facing seats can use forward-facing seats with internal harnesses; children at least 4 years old who have outgrown forward-facing seats can use booster seats with lap and shoulder belts; children 9 and older who have outgrown booster seats can use regular seat belts if they pass a five-step test, including proper fit across shoulder, chest, and hips, ability to sit without slouching, and knees bending at the seat edge.
• Parental Leave: Employers must keep providing health insurance and other benefits while employees are on pregnancy or parental leave. Leave time can’t be reduced by prenatal appointments.
• Swatting: Making false emergency calls that send first responders to homes of officials becomes a felony. This targets a dangerous prank that wastes resources and creates risks.
• Threats to Public Officials: It’s now a misdemeanor to publish personal information about judges or other officials to threaten or harass them. It becomes a felony if it leads to harm.
• Adoptions: Courts can’t refuse adoptions just because a potential parent has a disability. They also can’t take away parenting time solely due to disability.
• Tips: When customers tip using cards or electronic payments, employers must credit those tips to the pay period when the employee received them and pay them out in the next paycheck.
• Drug Testing: Employers can now use saliva tests for drug and alcohol screening of job applicants and employees, which is faster than traditional methods.
• Overdose Immunity: People who seek medical help for someone having a drug overdose can’t be prosecuted for possession or use of drugs in that situation.
• Juvenile DNA Collection: Police need a parent’s permission, a warrant, or a court order to collect DNA from a minor. This adds protection for young people’s genetic privacy.
• Rumble Strips: The Department of Transportation must add rumble strips (grooves that make noise when driven over) on highways with stop signs and speed limits of 55 mph or higher.

For more information on these and other new laws, visit the House of Representatives new laws database here: https://www.house.mn.gov/newlaws/search/2024