Minnesota Commerce Group Gets Fees in Political Contribution Row

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce won $707,000 in fees and expenses in its First Amendment lawsuit challenging a state law that barred businesses with foreign ownership from making political contributions.

The Chamber can recover its attorneys’ fees as requested, but it’s not entitled to the $44,325 in expert fees it asked the court as well as to other litigation costs, Judge Eric C. Tostrud of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota said July 18.

The ruling is that latest development in the Chamber’s 2023 case. Earlier this year, Tostrud held that the officials failed to show that the Minnesota Fair Campaign Practices Act’s ban on political speech is the least restrictive means for addressing its interest and thus it went too far in restricting the speech of corporations with foreign shareholders.

Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board’s members, the defendants, challenged portions of the Chamber’s monetary request, including its expert-witness fees; attorneys’ fees it incurred representing third parties; and fees incurred for an electronic-discovery platform used by the chamber’s counsel.

“Expert fees are not recoverable as attorneys’ fees” in a lawsuit under section 1983, Tostrud said. The chamber will be granted only $80—or $40 for each expert out of the more than $44,000 it requested, Tostrud said. Witness costs are capped at "$40 per day for each day’s attendance” at a court hearing or deposition, and since they were each deposed for a day, this is the maximum allotted, he said.

Tostrud rejected the officials’ argument that the Chamber wasn’t entitled to $58,992 its counsel, Winthrop & Weinstine, incurred representing certain witnesses that weren’t parties to the case. The Chamber “persuasively” argued that the expenses incurred on the litigation were reasonable and important to advancing its standing arguments in the case.

The board also argued that the chamber wasn’t entitled to $840 incurred to use Relativity, an electronic-discovery platform. Prevailing parties may seek reasonable out-of-pocket expenses of the kind normally charged to clients by attorneys, the court said. “The Eighth Circuit has not given direct guidance regarding whether database hosting for electronic discovery counts as recoverable attorneys’ fees, and other courts have reached different conclusions.” The chamber didn’t meet its burden of showing that the $60 per month Relativity cost is an out-of-pocket expense, the court ruled.

The court granted the chamber $706,856 attorneys’ fees, $80 in expert fees, and expenses in the amount of $98.

Winthrop & Weinstine PA represents the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and Minnesota Attorney General’s Office represent state officials and members of the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.

The case is Minn. Chamber of Commerce v. Choi, D. Minn., No. 23-cv-2015, 7/18/25.