US Justice Department files ethics complaint against seven Minnesota judges

October 1, 2026 at 02:28 AM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

The US Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint against seven federal judges in Minnesota who spoke publicly about immigration enforcement pressures. Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the judges of showing bias against the Trump administration and called for their recusal from DHS cases. The judges maintain they acted within ethical rules.

Key Facts

The complaint targets seven federal judges in Minnesota who spoke to The New York Times about Operation Metro Surge.
Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the judges of 'obvious bias' and demanded recusal from DHS cases.
Judge Patrick Schiltz alleged the government failed to comply with nearly 100 court orders in January.
A Minnesota federal court spokesperson said legal experts found the judges were 'well within the ethical rules'.

The Complaint

The Justice Department filed the misconduct complaint against seven Minnesota federal judges on unspecified grounds related to their public comments. The judges spoke to The New York Times about the flood of cases during Operation Metro Surge, an immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests in the Minneapolis-St Paul area from December to February. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the judges showed 'obvious bias' against the Trump administration and should step aside from any cases involving the Department of Homeland Security. Blanche told reporters, '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.'

Judicial Response

A spokesperson for Minnesota’s federal court system said legal experts had found that the judges were 'well within the ethical rules' when they spoke to the newspaper. Judge Patrick Schiltz, one of the judges named in the complaint, alleged that the government did not comply with nearly 100 court orders related to immigration enforcement in January alone. In one ruling, Schiltz wrote that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement '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 told The New York Times that what happened in Minnesota’s federal courts during the crackdown 'created a grave threat to the rule of law'.

Broader Conflict

The complaint is the latest in a series of clashes between the Trump administration and the judiciary, which has blocked some of the president’s policies and, in several cases, accused government lawyers of failing to follow court orders. Schiltz pointed to guidance issued by a federal judicial ethics panel in February, saying that judges can speak publicly about issues such as the rule of law and judicial independence. He said, 'That is exactly what I did.'