A government watchdog group has filed a lawsuit against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, claiming state officials failed to respond to a public records request seeking documents about school security funding and whether nonpublic schools were considered for state safety programs.

Judicial Watch, a conservative nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., submitted its records request to the governor’s office on Aug. 28, 2025, one day after a gunman opened fire during an all-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis. The attack killed two children, ages 8 and 10, and wounded 17 others.

The complaint, filed on March 4 in Wright County under the state law that governs public access to government records, asks a court to order the governor’s office to release communications from January 2022 through August 2025 pertaining to proposals to encompass nonpublic schools — which include Catholic schools — in Minnesota’s Safe Schools funding and a proposed $50 million Building and Cyber Security Grant Program.

The Safe Schools funding, including a 2019 Safe Schools Supplemental Aid appropriation, provides support for security improvements, emergency preparedness, mental health support and violence-prevention initiatives in public school districts and charter schools. The complaint notes that this funding does not extend to the approximately 72,000 students in Minnesota who attend Catholic, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other private schools.

The lawsuit brings attention to repeated appeals from leaders of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis, following major out-of-state school shootings in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022 and Nashville, Tennessee, in 2023.

In 2022, the state’s bishops urged the governor to call a special legislative session to extend $44 per student in funding to all schools to enhance security. In 2023, Archbishop Hebda wrote directly to Walz seeking inclusion for nonpublic students in the proposed $50 million grant program. The complaint notes that Minnesota had a $17.6 billion surplus at the time.

The conference, which represents the six Catholic dioceses of the state, and independent school associations urged the state to extend security funding to nonpublic schools, but the governor took no action.

On Thursday, the Minnesota Catholic Conference emailed a statement to the Register distancing itself from Judicial Watch, saying it had not engaged the group and that it is disappointed Judicial Watch used its name without consulting the conference, which represents the state’s bishops in public affairs.

The statement added that legislative proposals in 2026 aim to increase Safe Schools revenue for all schools. “We hope that the Legislature and Gov. Walz consider our request — and other needed policies such as gun-safety measures and protecting kids online — to prevent more terrible events like what happened at Annunciation School,” the statement reads.

According to Michael Bekesha, a senior attorney at Judicial Watch, the lawsuit was prompted by both the Annunciation School shooting in Minneapolis and the history of unaddressed appeals from school leaders.

“Essentially, that day and the day after, it became known that there was a repeated effort to seek additional funding for schools, and they never received the security funding,” Bekesha told the Register. “And so the question is, why?”

The attorney emphasized that while the lawsuit’s primary goal is to obtain records, it could inform future decisions about school security funding.

“Governor Walz left the state’s nonpublic school students unprotected,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton in a March 11 press release. “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.”

The lawsuit requests records of communications between the governor’s office and Catholic and independent school leaders. It also requests written communications detailing discussions of political priorities, use of the 2023 state budget surplus and influence from groups such as Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers’ union. Judicial Watch also seeks documents showing whether the governor’s office reconsidered funding decisions after the 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville and the 2025 Minneapolis attack.

Walz’s office did not respond to a request for comment before publication. In an August 2025 Register article, the office said the governor “cares deeply about the safety of students” and has “signed into law millions in funding for school safety,” though none of the prior bills applied to nonpublic schools.