Judicial Watch Sues Gov. Tim Walz over Refusal to Provide Security for Nonpublic Schools

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a lawsuit under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act against Governor Tim Walz for failing to provide records regarding his refusal to extend state-funded school security programs to nonpublic schools prior to the August 27, 2025, killing of two children at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Office of the Governor and Tim Walz in his official capacity as Governor (No. 86-CV-26-1292)).

Minnesota’s Safe Schools Program, created in 2019 to fund security enhancements, excludes the state’s 72,000 students attending nonpublic schools. After major school shootings in Uvalde, TX (2022) and Nashville, TN (2023), Catholic and independent school leaders repeatedly urged Governor Walz to extend security funding to all students or include nonpublic schools in new grant programs. Walz declined to act each time, leaving nonpublic school students without access to these safety funds despite the state’s $17.6 billion budget surplus at the time. 

Judicial Watch sued in the Minnesota District Court after the governor’s office failed to respond to a records request filed on August 28, 2025, the day after the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, MN. Specifically, Judicial Watch asked for:

• Requests or proposals to include nonpublic schools in the Safe Schools Program and a proposed $50 million Building and Cyber Security Grant Program — to nonpublic schools, including Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or other private or parochial schools;
• Communications between the Governor’s Office and the Minnesota Catholic Conference (including leaders such as Archbishop Bernard Hebda and MCC Executive Director Jason Adkins) about security funding for nonpublic schools;
• Records about decisions to deny or not approve security funding for nonpublic schools, including discussions of political priorities, use of the 2023 state budget surplus, or influence from groups like Education Minnesota;
• Communications with the Minnesota Department of Education, legislators, or other state agencies regarding expanding safety funding to nonpublic schools, including any bipartisan legislative efforts;
• Any updates or reconsiderations after 2023, including responses following the August  27, 2025, shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School.

Judicial Watch notes in its complaint that: “For years Minnesota’s Catholic bishops and school leaders warned Governor Walz that the state’s 72,000 nonpublic school students were unprotected. They asked him to act. He did not. When the legislature offered a path forward, it went nowhere — while Minnesota sat on a $17.6 billion surplus.”

“Governor Walz left the state’s nonpublic school students unprotected,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Minnesota’s Catholic bishops and school leaders asked him to act. He refused. This lawsuit seeks transparency on why nonpublic school students were excluded from safety funding.”

Earlier this month, Judicial Watch announced a major legal victory after the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled that the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County must release non-exempt portions of records related to the March 27, 2023, at The Covenant School shooting, including the shooter’s writings. Judicial Watch had filed an open records lawsuit to force the release.

Parker Daniels Kibort, LLC is assisting Judicial Watch in the case.

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