Kohls v. Ellison — Artificial Intelligence & Election Misinformation (MN)

In 2023, Minnesota’s legislature passed a bill regulating certain election-related deepfakes. The bill focuses on media created primarily by artificial intelligence (AI) that non-consensually depicts real people, in realistic detail, doing or saying things they never did or said. Among other things, the bill prohibits the dissemination of such deepfakes when intended to affect the outcome of an election. Gov. Tim Walz signed the bill into law on May 26, 2023.

In 2024, Christopher Kohls and state Rep. Mary Franson sued state officials to block enforcement of the law. Kohls is an online content creator who creates and shares political parodies including deepfakes. Franson is a state representative who voted for the bill and later reposted Kohls’s AI-generated content. The plaintiffs argued that prohibiting the sharing of clearly deceptive election-related deepfakes violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

On Jan. 10, 2025, a federal judge denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. The judge ruled that Kohls had not proved the law would apply to him at all, while Franson failed to show that she would be “irreparably harmed” by the law absent an injunction. The judge also held that the law does not apply to content that is clearly unbelievable, such as parody or satire—the kind of media that Kohls creates and publishes.

The plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal on Feb. 7, and filed their opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on April 18.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed the state’s response brief on May 19, 2025. States United is serving as pro bono outside counsel to Attorney General Ellison for the appeal.

• State’s response brief (filed May 19, 2025)
• Appellants’ opening brief (filed April 18, 2025)
• District court order denying plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction (filed Jan. 10, 2025)

• Minnesota Reformer: States rush to combat AI threat to elections (March 28, 2024)
• The Minnesota Star Tribune: Bill regulating ‘deepfake’ technology passes Minnesota Senate (May 11, 2023)