A federal district judge in St. Paul on Wednesday put the brakes on a campaign finance law set to take effect next month that would bar businesses in Minnesota with minimal investment from foreign-based persons or entities from contributing to political campaigns. …

“The challenged provisions — which are scheduled take effect January 1, 2024 — would forbid some (but not all) business organizations with foreign ownership from exercising their First Amendment free-speech rights in connection with elections for state and local public office and ballot questions in Minnesota,” U.S. District Court Judge Eric Tostrud wrote in an opinion Wednesday that granted the Chamber’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the law from taking effect on Jan. 1.

“These free-speech prohibitions have teeth in the form of criminal and civil consequences,” Tostrud wrote in his 34-page ruling. “Important here, the extent of foreign ownership necessary to trigger the statute’s prohibitions is not great: a foreign ownership interest of as little as one percent may qualify.”

[The DFL (Minnesota’s Democrat Party) sure must be worried about the business community opposing their socialist policies to pass a bill like this. That nearly borders on paranoia, given the grip the Left has on the state already. Progressive-woke Democrats *really* don’t like political opposition or dissent in any meaningful form, it seems — on campuses or off. — Ed]