{"id":270,"date":"2026-06-25T11:06:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=270"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:06:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:06:02","slug":"what-we-can-learn-from-trumps-continued-obsession-with-punishing-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=270","title":{"rendered":"What We Can Learn From Trump\u2019s Continued Obsession With Punishing Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is <\/em>Executive Dysfunction<\/em>, a newsletter that highlights one under-the-radar story about how Trump is changing the law\u2014or how the law is pushing back\u2014and keeps you posted on the latest from Slate\u2019s Jurisprudence team. <\/em>Click here<\/em> to receive it in your inbox each week.<\/em><\/p>\n

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It was only about five months ago that all eyes were on Minnesota, where horrific images revealed federal agents arresting a 5-year-old with an active asylum case, ripping a disabled woman out of her car as she tried to make her way to a doctor\u2019s appointment, and killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti in broad daylight. The Trump administration shamelessly tried to use Minnesota to set an example for other Democrat-led states: This is what you will face, too, should you choose not to cooperate with the president\u2019s mass-deportation agenda. The barrage of federal agents also came with criminal investigations, with the Justice Department issuing subpoenas to Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and other top Minnesota officials, accusing them of impeding federal agents\u2019 immigration enforcement duties. Now, however, as the dust has settled and the administration\u2019s legal challenges are making their way through the judiciary, the public is getting a closer look at just how feckless the Trump administration was in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Think back to when federal agents first touched down in Minnesota back in January and began wreaking havoc on local communities. Walz urged the public to \u201cspeak out loudly, urgently, but also peacefully.\u201d Frey, speaking at a press conference, was less subtle. \u201cTo ICE: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That immediately pissed off the White House. President Donald Trump publicly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act if the \u201ccorrupt politicians of Minnesota\u201d did not comply with this immigration enforcement, and then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused Walz and Frey of \u201cencouraging violence against law enforcement\u201d and vowed to stop their \u201cterrorism by whatever means necessary.\u201d By late January, just days after Walz and Frey filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department served subpoenas to Walz, Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, and the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners. The grand jury subpoenas were in pursuit of information related to federal immigration enforcement, including any policies, guidance, or suggestions issued that related to cooperating, or not, with federal authorities.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota officials banded together to challenge the subpoenas, and on Monday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz decisively ruled against the Trump administration. Schiltz is no liberal; he\u2019s a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of conservative legend Justice Antonin Scalia and was appointed to his post by Republican former President George W. Bush. Yet in no uncertain terms, he concluded there was \u201cno doubt\u201d that the Trump administration had taken a \u201cblatantly unlawful and unethical use of the grand jury process\u201d in order to harass its political opponents and coerce them into taking official action.<\/p>\n

And when it was asked to defend itself, Schiltz said the Justice Department struggled to identify a single plausible explanation that would have justified its subpoenas. It cited violations of federal statutes by members of the Minneapolis City Council and representatives of Ramsey County and Hennepin County, though Schiltz found that at least half of this activity is considered independent advocacy and involved people to whom the Justice Department did not even serve a subpoena. What the federal government ultimately had to show for itself was an incriminating public record in which Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions while publicly unleashing \u201cvitriolic tirades\u201d against local officials, including those in Minnesota. On top of all this, the subpoenas were incredibly broad, seeking information from the state\u2019s highest offices, but over materials that largely, if not entirely, relate to constitutionally protected conduct.<\/p>\n

Schiltz noted the 10th<\/sup> Amendment\u2019s \u201canti-commandeering rule\u201d affords states autonomy from administering or enforcing federal regulatory programs. It also forbids the federal government from coercing or retaliating against states or political subdivisions that decline to help the federal government enforce federal laws\u2014exactly what the Trump administration has been doing to Minnesota and plenty of other local jurisdictions. \u201cOn their face, therefore, the subpoenas are directed to investigating activity that is not only legal, but constitutionally protected from interference by the very federal government that issued the subpoenas,\u201d Schiltz wrote.<\/p>\n

It should come as no surprise that the Trump administration failed here, as it\u2019s been facing devastating blows in courts across the country, where Republican- and Democrat-appointed judges are time and time again concluding the federal government is abusing its power, operating in bad faith, and retaliating against those who dare push back.<\/p>\n

Consider the case of Paul Johnson, a Minnesota man who participated in anti\u2013Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests. Two weeks after Good\u2019s murder, he drove around his neighborhood honking his horn to alert his community to ICE\u2019s presence. He was following federal agents one day when suddenly they boxed him in with their vehicles, smashed his driver\u2019s side window, punched him in the head, pepper-sprayed him directly in the face, then finally took him to the Hennepin County Medical Center. Johnson was charged with assaulting federal officers.<\/p>\n

According to a Johnson filed earlier this month, he was confined to a hospital room, shackled to his bed for five straight days, and was not allowed to make any phone calls to family or to his lawyer. Only after a nurse sneaked a phone to Johnson was he able to contact his wife. As Johnson\u2019s story has come to light in recent days, federal prosecutors suddenly moved to dismiss his charges, though they promised to investigate Johnson\u2019s allegations.
Meanwhile, Johnson has been left with a permanent brain injury, damaged shoulder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

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Right now, federal agents\u2019 behavior suggests they simply want to bully Americans who dare challenge them, while the Trump Justice Department will happily provide legal cover to protect these agents. Hours after Pretti was shot dead by federal agents, and before any federal investigation was conducted, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem without hesitation called him a \u201cdomestic terrorist.\u201d And in Chicago, another city embroiled in the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown, a federal judge threw out charges against a group of protesters who came to be known as the Broadview Six after concluding federal prosecutors had committed egregious acts of misconduct when trying to get a grand jury to indict.<\/p>\n

While the Trump administration is putting on a strong face, it is a hollow facade that\u2019s not just revealing weak legal arguments, but transparent abuses of the law that are being laughed out of court by the most conservative judges.<\/p>\n

We hope you learned a thing or two from this edition of Executive Dysfunction, and if you enjoyed reading it, please consider <\/em>supporting our legal journalism by becoming a Slate Plus member<\/em>!<\/em><\/p>\n

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