xAI asked a federal court to stop Minnesota's nudification law before it took effect. On Friday Judge Donovan W. Frank of the District of Minnesota said no, and the law came into force on Saturday 1 August.
The ground the judge actually used
Emergency relief requires irreparable harm that cannot wait. Frank wrote that "such a delay in bringing the action and the motion suggests that harm is not immediate" — xAI filed suit on 27 July and moved for a restraining order on 29 July, roughly three months after the bill was signed and three days before it took effect. That is a holding about timing. There is no First Amendment analysis in the order, and nothing in it says HF 1606 survives constitutional scrutiny.
The case is not over — it just started
Frank converted the motion into one for a preliminary injunction. Attorney General Keith Ellison's opposition is due 12 August, xAI replies by 17 August, and the hearing is set for 19 August in St. Paul. The substantive fight is about three weeks away.
What the statute does
HF 1606 passed 197 to 1 and carries civil penalties of up to $500,000 per unlawful download or use. That is a statutory maximum, not a penalty anyone has imposed, demanded or sought — no enforcement action exists. xAI's complaint argues the law is a content-based restriction imposing strict liability with no scienter requirement and no safe harbour, and the company says it will withhold the image-editing feature in Grok Imagine from users in Minnesota.
The remedy xAI picked
That last detail is the practical outcome, and it arrived before any court decided anything. Rather than change the model, xAI is geofencing the capability out of one state. It is the cheapest available compliance route and it is the one every operator will copy if the law survives — which turns a state statute into a map of where a feature exists. The vote margin, 197 to 1, suggests xAI will not find much political sympathy in Minnesota while it argues the point.