Trump Administration Files Misconduct Complaint Against Seven Minnesota Judges

The administration of US President Donald Trump has filed a misconduct complaint against seven federal judges in Minnesota over comments they made publicly about the impact of the government’s immigration crackdown on the state’s courts.

The judges spoke to The New York Times about the pressure faced by federal courts during Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement campaign that resulted in thousands of arrests in the Minneapolis-St Paul area between December and February.

The US Department of Justice accused the judges of crossing an ethical line by discussing the cases publicly. Attorney General Todd Blanche also accused them of showing what he described as “obvious bias” against the Trump administration and called on them to withdraw from cases involving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Blanche said the Justice Department had no choice but to act after concluding that the judges had violated ethical rules and demonstrated bias in their public comments.

However, the judges rejected the allegations. A spokesperson for Minnesota’s federal court system said legal experts had determined that the judges were acting within ethical guidelines when they spoke to the newspaper.

The complaint comes amid growing tensions between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary. Several courts have blocked aspects of Trump’s policies, while some judges have accused government lawyers of failing to comply with court orders.

One of the judges named in the complaint, Patrick Schiltz, said the government failed to comply with nearly 100 court orders concerning immigration enforcement in January alone. In one ruling, he stated that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “is not a law unto itself.”

Schiltz, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush and previously served as a law clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, later told The New York Times that events in Minnesota’s federal courts during the immigration crackdown had created what he called a “grave threat to the rule of law.”

He also cited guidance issued by a federal judicial ethics panel in February, which said judges could publicly discuss issues including the rule of law and judicial independence.

Schiltz said his public comments were consistent with that guidance.

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