DOJ Moves to Remove Two Minnesota Federal Judges From Immigration Cases Over Their New York Times Interviews

The Justice Department wants two Minnesota federal judges off immigration-related cases because of what they told a newspaper. Fox News reports that the department filed separate motions asking Judge Patrick Schiltz and Judge John Tunheim to recuse themselves.

The cases. Schiltz is overseeing the government's effort to strip U.S. citizenship from Salah Osman Ahmed, a Somali-born man who pleaded guilty in 2009 to providing material support to terrorists after joining al-Shabaab. Tunheim is presiding over the prosecution of a South African national accused of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship and illegally voting in the 2024 election.

The argument. In a statement posted to X, the department said the judges' "on-the-record participation in a recent highly partisan New York Times Article" and Schiltz's later public comments "unquestionably calls into doubt whether they can be impartial in these cases." Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote that a judge who has "publicly taken sides on the political issue of immigration enforcement cannot then preside over a case" tied to what he called the largest denaturalization effort in department history.

Where it started. Schiltz and Tunheim were among seven Minnesota federal judges who spoke to the Times in September about Operation Metro Surge. Fox says Schiltz sat for a roughly 90-minute interview in which he described the administration's handling of the operation as a "grave threat to the rule of law." Tunheim suggested agents were not mainly arresting dangerous criminals. The Times report also described the judges meeting, trading emails and using a clerk-built spreadsheet to find colleagues to consult on recurring legal questions. Chief Judge Eric Tostrud told Fox the judges still decided each case independently: "each of us made an independent decision with respect to the merits of each and every petition we were assigned."

Earlier steps. Last month the department filed a judicial misconduct complaint with the Eighth Circuit against Schiltz, Tunheim and other judges who took part in the Times report. Attorney General Todd Blanche said their conduct "undermined public confidence in an impartial judiciary in Minnesota."

The judges' side. Schiltz declined to comment on the new motion. In September he said that "no one has yet identified any basis for my recusal," and that he had not commented on the merits of any case, only "in defense of the rule of law, a component of which is compliance with court orders." Tunheim did not respond to Fox.

An outside view. Charles "Cully" Stimson of the Heritage Foundation, a former federal prosecutor and military judge, told Fox the judges "did something extraordinarily imprudent" by speaking to the Times. If the interviews were the only facts at issue, he said, he would recuse. He also cautioned that it would be wrong to predict how the motions should be decided without the full record. If a judge refuses, he said, the government could seek review from a three-judge Eighth Circuit panel. DOJ declined to say whether it would appeal.

Note for readers: the department's and Stimson's characterizations are as reported by Fox. We have not seen the motions.