USA30 September, 20262 min read
DOJ Files Judicial Misconduct Complaint Against Minnesota Judges Over New York Times Metro Surge Comments
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DOJ filed judicial misconduct complaints against Minnesota federal judges for NYT immigration comments. DOJ sought recusal of seven judges who spoke with the NYT.
DOJ targets Minnesota judges
The Department of Justice filed a judicial misconduct complaint on Wednesday against Hon. Patrick J. Schiltz, Hon. John R. Tunheim, and other anonymous judges in the District of Minnesota after the judges made comments to The New York Times about immigration cases tied to Operation Metro Surge.
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the filing at a Washington press conference and said, "We have no choice but to act."
The complaint asks the judges who spoke to The New York Times to recuse themselves from any matters involving the Department of Homeland Security and asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to investigate the judges' conduct.
The complaint focuses on a Sept. 17 New York Times article in which Schiltz sat for an interview along with six other members of Minnesota’s federal bench, including "six of seven judges who held active status in Minnesota last winter."
Rule of law dispute
Schiltz told The Times that ICE's violations of court orders "created a grave threat to the rule of law," and the complaint says the judges' comments were improper and unethical. Tunheim pushed back on the Trump administration's claim that it was arresting the "worst of the worst" and told the Times, "They weren't arresting, in my view, people who were dangerous criminals on the street."
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote that "If anything is a 'grave threat to the rule of law,' it is judges who repeatedly and brazenly exceed their authority then launch a partisan press campaign". The Justice Department also said the complaint is signed by McCotter and Woodward and that the judges' conduct "flagrantly violated" the judicial code of conduct by speaking to the media outlet about issues involved in pending cases.
Recusal and broader tensions
The DOJ asked the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to force the recusal of all seven judges who spoke with The Times from any case involving the Department of Homeland Security.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the judges' remarks were "overtly political" and reflected an "an obvious bias" against the Department of Homeland Security, while the ethics complaint is pending at the federal appeals court that oversees Minnesota’s federal bench.
The complaint also requests an investigation into Minnesota federal judges who "covet publicity" rather than adhering to the rule of law by adjudicating cases or controversies.
The dispute sits within a wider set of tensions between the Trump administration and the judicial branch, with Blanche saying the judges' conduct "undermined public confidence in an impartial judiciary in Minnesota."