Patrick J. Schiltz

I predict his name comes up.

Today, Jeanette Vargas Hiacob, John McConnell, Juan Mershon, Kathleen McCormick, Louis Kaplan, Mary Moriarty, Matthew Barrett, Michael Nakamov, Mustafa T. Kasubai, Patrick Schiltz, Paul Engelmeyer, Paula Zenas, Richard Leone, Roberta Kaplan, Royce Lamberth, Scott McCaffrey, no, McCaffey, McAfee maybe, Sparkle Sukhnenon, Tanya Chutkin, Teresa Stokes, Tiffany Baker Carver, Tim Kelly, William Fitzpatrick, and Zia Faruqi.

How many is that? That's a long list of enemies within judges.

Enemies within judges who think they won the executive branch election.

It's amazing.

The complaint stems from interviews given by judges, Patrick Schiltz and others to the New York times earlier this month in which I said Schiltz, but it's, Well, I can't tell because a copy editor needs to step in here.

I think we have mentioned his name before, and I think we had the same problem before.

One version says Schiltz, and then the next mention of him says Schlitz, like the beer.

But it is probably, I think it's Schiltz.

Anyway, I mean, I guess I could click on the link and say, how do they spell it in the interview? And I assume that one of the first questions is, what's your name and how do you spell it? Yeah, Schiltz.

Okay, so the complaint stems from interviews given by judges Patrick Schiltz and others to the New York Times earlier this month, in which Schiltz, who until recently was the chief justice for the District of Minnesota, said the federal government's actions during Operation Metro Surge, the ICE and Border Patrol Surge, created a grave threat to the rule of law.

And it did, but that made them angry, you see.

These judges are commenting publicly on pending and impending cases and making political statements on matters that are currently or just recently been before them, many of which are still on appeal.

Attorney General Todd Blanche was citing interviews the judges gave to The New York Times in September, including these remarks from Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, who served as a chief US district judge in Minnesota during ICE's winter surge.

What happened in our court, especially in January through March of this year, was pretty much unprecedented in the history of the United States, at least going back to the Civil War, and it, um, created a, um, grave threat to the rule of law.

In a statement, Minnesota's Attorney General, Keith Ellison, condemned the Justice Department's complaint against federal judges as, quote, "A desperate and dangerous attack on American judicial independence." He added, "Trump and his allies have bullied immigrants, refugees, and the trans community, and now they're turning their attacks toward a co-equal branch of government," Ellison said.

These judges are commenting publicly on pending and impending cases, and making political statements on matters that are currently or just recently been before them, many of which are still on appeal.

Attorney General Todd Blanche was citing interviews the judges gave to The New York Times in September, including these remarks from Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, who served as a chief US district judge in Minnesota during ICE's winter surge.

What happened in our court, especially th- in January through March of this year, was pretty much unprecedented in the history of the United States, at least going back to the Civil War.

And it, um, created a, um, grave threat to the rule of law.

The comments are not only overtly political, itself a violation, but also concern matters pending before these judges or still in the appellate process.

One of the judges, Patrick Schiltz, told The Times what happened in Minnesota's federal court last winter created a grave threat to the rule of law.

A court spokesperson says the judges were acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges.

Ed Donahue, Washington.

As Matt Sepik reports, it stems from comments that they made to a journalist.

The complaint singles out Judges Patrick Schiltz and John Thunheim, but also includes five others who spoke with The New York Times for a September 17th story.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch alleges they're in violation of judicial ethics rules, but University of St. Thomas law professor Greg Sisk says judges are allowed to speak to the media, just not about particular cases.

I see no references in any of these interviews or in the complaint filed by the Department of Justice to judges commenting on a specific case by name, They were making comments about overall issues.