HOLY COW! YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS JUDGE’S TAKEDOWN OF THE DOJ OVER THEIR SUBPOENAS TO MINNESOTA OFFICIALS! HE IS *PISSED* AND IT’S LIKE THE ULTIMATE NIMBY (IN A GOOD WAY)
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. – giving you the facts and truth with zero misleading hype about what’s going on with this administration and the law
A federal judge in Minnesota just ripped the DOJ not one new one, but several new ones (actually he did it last month but it’s only come to light just now through the Minnesota Attorney General’s office).
Before we go any further, I need to tell you who this judge is, because it’s none other than Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz of the District Court in Minnesota. If his name sounds familiar, well it should, because I’ve written about him before, and he’s b*tch-slapped Trump, ICE, and the DOJ before.
You may recall him as the judge whom the administration had tried to end-run in an earlier case by going behind his back, petitioning the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on a Friday – *without notifying the District Court* – to issue an arrest warrant for Don Lemon, after Judge Schiltz had declined to do so. Of course Judge Schiltz was notified of this by the Court, and I’ll bet that Bondi (who was still around at that time), Blanche, et al were pretty darned surprised when Judge Schiltz *responded* in a letter to his colleague on the 8th Circuit, which started “I am working from home today, as the program that my mentally disabled adult son attends each day is closed because of the extreme cold. At 11:34 am, I received an email regarding Case No. 26-1135, entitled “In re: United States of America.” (You can read all about that one, including the outcome and the documents, here: https://annepmitchell.substack.com/p/woot-judge-refuses-to-charge-minnesota )
THEN Judge Schiltz hauled Todd Lyons before the Court and gave him a severe dressing down in a *different* case for not fully following his orders regarding ICE detention. (You can read about *that* here: https://annepmitchell.substack.com/p/judge-orders-that-acting-ice-director )
So, this is a judge who has repeatedly demonstrated a strong backbone and a sharp tongue when it comes to this administration and their shenanigans.
With that background, you may expect that Judge Schiltz would be *all over* the DOJ attempting to *subpoena the Governor of Minnesota*! (Well, his office.) And the Minneapolis Mayor’s office. AND the St. Paul Mayor’s office. AND the Minnesota Attorney General’s office. AND the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners AND the Hennepin County board of Commissioners.
And he is.
That’s right, the DOJ had issued six subpoenas to the offices of the highest ranking officials in Minnesota, St. Paul, and Ramsey and Hennepin county.
This meant, as the Court points out, that the following parties had to file motions to quash (it’s like squash but without the s) those subpoenas:
“Governor Tim Walz, in.his personal capacity; the Office of the Governor; Mayor Jacob Frey, in his personal capacity; the Office of the Mayor of Minneapolis; the City of Minneapolis; Mayor Kaohly Her; the City of St. Paul; Attorney General Keith Ellison; the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General; the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners; Hennepin County; and Members of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners.”
But wait, there’s more.
Those subpoenas were the result of the *convening of grand juries* against those officials and their offices!
Judge Schiltz starts right out in the first pages by pointing out that “President Trump has repeatedly insulted Minnesota generally and its Somali population in particular; targeted Democratic-led cities for expanded deportation efforts; asserted that Democratic officials who oppose the deployment of National Guard troops for immigration enforcement should be jailed; issued multiple executive orders threatening to cut off federal funding to “sanctuary” jurisdictions; and sued Minnesota and some of its political subdivisions seeking to invalidate state and local provisions limiting assistance to federal immigration officials.”
Judge Schiltz is not going to stand for this, NIMJ! (Not in My Jurisdiction).
In an incredible 29-page tongue lashing (included for Notes from the Front members) Judge Schiltz eviscerates Trump, the DOJ, and their mothers (ok, not really that last one).
First, setting ’em up for the take down, he says “The moving parties argue that the subpoenas should be quashed for a number of reasons. The Court need address only one of those reasons: the moving parties’ contention that the subpoenas were issued as part of an unconstitutional effort to coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration laws and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so. The Court agrees with the moving parties.”
That’s just page 14. You can imagine what the rest of the opinion and order reads like!
One of the best parts? He decides it based on the 10th Amendment (anti-commandeering) claims in their motions to quash, and, and I quote, “Notably, the Department’s brief did not acknowledge, much less engage with, movants’ arguments with respect to the Tenth Amendment.”
Oops.
After some more amazing tongue-lashing he observes that:
“Initiating a criminal investigation in order to harass political opponents or to coerce them into taking official action – particularly official action that the federal government cannot directly require those political opponents to take – is a blatantly unlawful and unethical use the grand-jury process.”
About a concurrent request to *unseal* the grand jury documents, Judge Schiltz points out that while typically a court has to consider whether doing so would compromise a criminal investigation, “nothing in this order or in the materials submitted to the Court could possibly compromise a criminal investigation; as the Court has explained at length, the Department is not conducting a criminal investigation, but is instead using the grand-jury process for other (unlawful) purposes.”
Ok, I’m going to stop here because as you can tell, I’m giddy over the entire thing – the entire order is…wow. If you want your hope restored, your faith in the judicial system bolstered, start each morning by reading a passage from this order!
Notes from the Front members: the opinion and order is in your inbox now!
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P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a comment that includes the word “squash”. It will show me that my efforts aren’t in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering just why everyone is talking about squashes or squashing! ;~)
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