"The five people whom the government seeks to arrest are accused of entering a church, and the worst behavior alleged about any of them is yelling horrible things at the members of the church. None committed any acts of violence. The learders of the group have been arrested, and their arrests have received widespread publicity. There is absolutely no emergency."
"The government could have sought indictments from a grand jury on Tuesday, January 20, Wednesday, January 21, or Thursday, January 22, but chose not to do so.The government can still take its case to a grand jury any time it wishes. Instead, the government is insisting that I do something that, as best as I can tell, no district judge in the history of the Eighth Circuit has done."
A magistrate judge denied five of eight arrest affidavits targeting Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen, and other protesters who entered a church led by a local ICE commander. The U.S. Attorney asked a district judge to issue the warrants immediately after the magistrate refusal. Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz consulted other district judges, found no precedent for overriding a magistrate in that manner, and declined to issue warrants before a bench meeting delayed for security reasons caused by the presence of Pam Bondi and JD Vance. DOJ filed an emergency writ of mandamus; Schiltz characterized the alleged conduct as nonviolent, noted leaders were already arrested and publicized, and pointed out the government could have sought grand jury indictments earlier.
Read at Emptywheel
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]