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We have a literally satanic display inside Minnesota’s beautiful capitol building. It’s a perversely offensive Christmas season special. Offense seems to be its reason for being and it has garnered some of the notoriety it seeks. The Center of the American Experiment’s Bill Glahn takes it in here.

Other coverage of the exhibit is not as illuminating as Bill’s. FOX9’s Mike Manzoni begins his story on the display in the video below by absolving Governor Tim Walz of any responsibility. Some might consider the exhibit a credit to Walz insofar as it gives expressive form to his tenure in office.

However, I wondered if Walz bears no responsibility for the display. In the text of Manzoni’s linked story, it appears that such exhibits fall under the jurisdiction of the Minnesota Department of Administration. The department lists exhibits at the capitol here.

The Commissioner of the Department of Administration is the governor’s appointee. Tamar Gronvall serves as the commissioner. She describes herself “[a]s a part of Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan’s cabinet….” Walz appointed Gronvall in September 2023.

Our experience of the Walz regime fits a pattern. He bears no responsibility for any action within the jurisdiction of the executive branch that he himself does not celebrate.

The massive Feeding Our Future fraud administered by the Minnesota Department of Education presents the classic example. According to Walz, it was Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann’s fault. He called for an investigation of Judge Guthmann.

Judge Guthmann begged to disagree. He authorized an unusual press release politely stating that Walz was lying.

The video of Manzoni’s story gives a partial view of the Minnesota Satanists’ application to display the exhibit. Manzoni does not report on the criteria that govern such displays. He only seeks to make it clear that Walz has nothing to do with it.

Walz cites the First Amendment and holds himself out as a proponent of free speech. I personally experienced Walz’s commitment to free speech when he had me expelled from the daily Department of Health press briefings early in the era of one-man rule he declared on March 25, 2020. Walz banished me on account of a critical question I asked the Department of Health. Even in the era of one-man rule, that was illegal.

First Amendment principles apply to a public forum established by the government, but these principles only require impartial application of any established criteria. Manzoni’s report affords a view of the story here through a glass darkly.

What are the criteria that apply to exhibits in our state capitol? I posed the question to the Department of Administration yesterday and heard back from department spokesman Julie Nelsen. Ms. Nelsen did not specify the criteria, but rather forwarded “links providing the process and guidelines for events and exhibits at the Capitol.”

She provided links to two documents: this document (“Requesting Use of Public Space for an Event at the Capitol and on Capitol Grounds”) and this document (“Public Events”). When I asked for an application, Ms. Nelsen sent me another version of the first form (“Requesting Use of Public Space for an Event at the Capitol and on Capitol Grounds”).

It appears that no criteria limit the nature or subject matter of exhibits at the capitol. Maybe that’s the way it should be. Maybe not. I may be missing something, but it appears to me that the buck stops with Walz.