The United States Justice Department has filed a misconduct complaint against seven federal judges in Minnesota for publicly discussing the pressures their courts faced during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The judges spoke to The New York Times about handling a surge of cases during Operation Metro Surge, which resulted in thousands of arrests in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area from December to February.
The Justice Department claims the judges violated ethical standards by discussing the cases publicly. Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that the judges exhibited 'obvious bias' against the Trump administration and urged them to recuse themselves from cases involving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 'When we have a situation like we have now, where you have a judge, a couple of judges, just not only violating the canons in our view but also showing bias in what they’re saying, we have no choice but to act,' Blanche told reporters.
The judges maintain that they acted appropriately. A spokesperson for Minnesota’s federal court system indicated that legal experts found the judges to be 'well within the ethical rules' when they spoke to the newspaper.
This complaint adds to ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary, which has previously blocked some of the president’s policies and accused government lawyers of not adhering to court orders. Judge Patrick Schiltz, one of those named in the complaint, claimed that the government failed to comply with nearly 100 court orders related to immigration enforcement in January alone. In one ruling, he stated that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 'is not a law unto itself.'
Schiltz, nominated by Republican President George W. Bush and a former clerk for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, later remarked that the situation in Minnesota’s federal courts during the crackdown 'created a grave threat to the rule of law.' He also referenced guidance from a federal judicial ethics panel issued in February, which indicated that judges are permitted to speak publicly on issues concerning the rule of law and judicial independence.