DOJ Moves to Disqualify Two Minnesota Federal Judges From Immigration Cases Over Comments to the New York Times

The Justice Department is seeking to remove two Minnesota federal judges from immigration-related cases, arguing their comments to The New York Times about the administration’s enforcement surge call their impartiality into question.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the department’s third-ranking official, filed the motions Tuesday against U.S. District Judges Patrick Schiltz and John Tunheim, CBS News reported.

In Schiltz’s case, the administration is seeking to strip the U.S. citizenship of Salah Osman Ahmed, a Somali American who pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge in 2009, according to MPR News.

Tunheim is presiding over the case of Hester Sophia Weihmann, a South African permanent resident charged with voting illegally in the 2024 election. She has pleaded not guilty, CBS reported.

“A judge who has publicly taken sides on the political issue of immigration enforcement cannot then preside over a case concerning one of the Justice Department’s key immigration initiatives,” Woodward wrote in the Schiltz motion.

Of Tunheim, Woodward wrote: “To Judge Tunheim, the ‘rule of law’ apparently means ignoring the law when it comes to illegal aliens who have broken the law.”

What the Judges Said

Both judges were quoted in a September Times story about Operation Metro Surge, the administration’s wintertime immigration crackdown in Minnesota, and its effect on the federal courts.

Tunheim told the newspaper that immigration agents were not “arresting, in my view, people who were dangerous criminals on the street,” MPR reported. Schiltz said ICE’s violations of court orders threatened the rule of law.

Schiltz previously told MPR that he acted “well within the ethical rules” and cited a judicial ethics advisory opinion allowing judges to speak on the rule of law and judicial independence.

The motions follow a judicial misconduct complaint the department filed last month against Schiltz, Tunheim and other Minnesota judges over the same article. The Star Tribune and Bloomberg Law also reported the new filings.

Woodward also moved over the weekend to disqualify U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes from a case involving Trump’s plans for a historic Washington golf course. Reyes rejected that motion Sunday, according to CBS.

Judicial ethics experts quoted by CBS said the motions are unlikely to succeed. “They’re looking to essentially antagonize the judges,” said Indiana University law professor Charles Geyh.

NYU law professor Stephen Gillers called the filings “performative,” noting the department promoted them on social media rather than raising concerns privately, CBS reported.

The department has also sued all 15 federal judges in Maryland over a standing order that temporarily blocks some deportations. A Virginia judge dismissed that suit, and the department has appealed, CBS noted.

Defense attorney Daniel Gerdts, who represents Ahmed, called the government’s arguments “contrived and baseless,” MPR reported.

The judges will rule on the motions themselves, though the department could ask other district judges to weigh in, a law professor told MPR. Schiltz has set a hearing for Nov. 23.

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