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american civil liberties union
Judge Rules ICE Cannot Retaliate Against Minnesota Protesters
"This is an important preliminary win for all Minnesotans exercising their constitutional right to peaceful protest and witness," state Attorney General Keith Ellison said.
Jan 17, 2026
Federal officers cannot retaliate against, detain, or attack people who are peacefully protesting and observing immigration enforcement operations in the Minneapolis area, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
The ruling comes a little more than a week after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed legal observer Renee Nicole Good, supercharging protests against an immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities that the Department of Homeland Security claims is its largest ever.
"This is an important preliminary win for all Minnesotans exercising their constitutional right to peaceful protest and witness," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison wrote on social media in response to the ruling. "Thanks and congratulations to the ACLU and the plaintiffs for standing strong for this bedrock principle."
The ruling was issued by Biden appointee and US District Judge Kate Menendez, who is based in Minneapolis. It restricts federal officers involved in "Operation Metro Surge"—an immigration-enforcement blitz in the Minneapolis area—from retaliating against, arresting or detaining, or targeting with nonlethal munitions such as pepper spray anyone "engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity," including observing ICE operations.
"We are relieved that in Tincher v. Noem et al. the court has issued a preliminary injunction. The ACLU-MN is hopeful that it will prevent further First Amendment violations like the ones that have been harming Minnesotans since the start of 'Operation Metro Surge.'"
Menendez further stipulated that people could not be detained for following ICE and other immigration enforcers with their vehicles if they were not interfering with the agents.
"The act of safely following Covered Federal Agents at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop," Menendez said.
The ruling is a preliminary injunction in response to Tincher v. Noem et al., a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota (ACLU-MN) in December 2025 on behalf of six community members who said their constitutional rights were violated by ICE in response to their protests.
Plaintiff Susan Tincher, for example, wrote that she was arrested merely for driving to the place where an ICE operation was taking place.
“I was on a public street,” Tincher in a statement. “I did not cross any lines. I did not interfere with anything. I did not disobey an order. I asked a single question–‘are you ICE?’–and almost immediately, officers rushed me, grabbed me, and slammed me face-first into the snow.”
Since the lawsuit was filed, ICE activity in the Twin Cities continued to escalate, culminating with an influx of 2,000 agents on January 6 and the shooting of Good the next day.
On January 8, the day after Good's murder, the plaintiffs' lawyers sent an emergency letter to the judge urging action.
"Thousands of peaceful observers and protesters turned out in the streets of the Twin Cities in the wake of Ms. Good’s murder," the letter reads in part. "Peaceful observers and protesters turned out again today, they will turn out again tomorrow, and they will continue turning out every day until Operation Metro Surge is over. These Minnesotans who are peacefully exercising their core constitutional rights to speak and gather continue to be met with unconstitutional and terrifying violence at the hands of federal agents on a daily basis, including unwarranted pepper spraying and unfounded arrests... And things appear to be getting worse, not better: Even more federal agents are being deployed to Minnesota at this very moment."
The ACLU-MN applauded the fact that Menendez had moved to restrain ICE.
"We are relieved that in Tincher v. Noem et al. the court has issued a preliminary injunction. The ACLU-MN is hopeful that it will prevent further First Amendment violations like the ones that have been harming Minnesotans since the start of 'Operation Metro Surge,'" the group wrote on social media.
Beyond Good's killing, the ruling follows several other high-profile incidents of ICE violence in Minnesota, including a nonlethal shooting of a man at a traffic stop and the hospitalization of three children after ICE tear-gassed the van they were driving in.
Menendez's decision came the same day that news broke that President Donald Trump's Department of Justice was investigating local leaders who had criticized ICE activity, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
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'We Are All DC': Tens of Thousands March to White House
D.C.rallies against Trump’s troops as more cities targeted
Sep 06, 2025
The heart of Washington, D.C., pulsed with defiance on Saturday as tens of thousands of demonstrators surged down 16th Street toward the White House. It was the city’s first major organized protest since President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency and unleashed federal troops onto its streets. Banners waved and voices rose in unison at the “We Are All D.C.” march, a massive show of resistance led by a coalition that included Free DC, defenders of local self-rule, Democracy Forward, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Their message was clear: the federal occupation of the capital must end.
People participate in the "We Are All DC" national march in solidarity with DC communities and calling for an end to the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, DC, on September 6, 2025.(Photo by AMID FARAHI/AFP via Getty Images)
“Today, in defense of the people and communities living under a military takeover of DC, we join in sending a clear and peaceful message: the American people will not bow to dictators. We are in solidarity with our neighbors and Black, Brown, immigrant, and other communities targeted. We will march, we will resist, and we will peacefully protest,” Democracy Forward wrote in a statement on X.
Thousands march to the White House united in our demand. We want federal forces out of DC Now!! Free DC! Free DC! #WeAreAllDC #FreeDC
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— Free DC (@freedcproject.bsky.social) September 6, 2025 at 1:07 PM
With Trump vowing crackdowns in other Democratic-led cities as well, he appeared to threaten Chicago with migrant deportations in a social media post with an image that parodied the 1979 Vietnam war movie "Apocalypse Now."
“I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” Trump said, converting a line about napalm in the Vietnam War to refer to deportations. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
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Trump-Appointed Judges Quash Contempt of Court Case Against White House
Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, dissented and described the other two judges' ruling as a "grave disservice."
Aug 08, 2025
Two judges appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday at least temporarily shut down a bid by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to potentially hold members of the Trump administration in contempt of court.
Politico reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit voted in a 2-1 ruling to quash contempt proceedings that Boasberg initiated against the Trump administration after he found there was probable cause to believe officials had defied his orders by sending 130 Venezuelan immigrants to be detained at El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center.
Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of whom were appointed by Trump, ruled in favor of shutting down the hearings. Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, dissented and described the other two judges' ruling as a "grave disservice" to Boasberg.
Politico noted that the ruling does not totally shut the door on Boasberg holding administration officials in contempt.
Among other things, the full 11-member bench of the D.C. Circuit could decide to take up the case and overrule the three-judge panel. Additionally, Judge Rao stopped short of saying that her ruling completely foreclosed upon the possibility that Boasberg could initiate criminal contempt proceedings against members of the administration.
In an interview with Politico, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt signaled that an appeal of some kind was forthcoming.
"We strongly disagree with the ruling and are considering all options going forward," Gelernt said. "The opinion brushes aside the considerable evidence that has emerged that DOJ's lawyers understood the order at the time and simply ignored it."
The possible contempt of court charges stemmed from a ruling that Boasberg delivered back in March demanding that the administration halt and return the group of Venezuelan immigrants who were sent to El Salvador. The men were sent to the prison regardless and administration officials argued that they had no jurisdiction to order their return because the plane they were on had already left American airspace at the time of Boasberg's ruling.
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