On Friday afternoon, a judge blocked federal agents in Minneapolis from arresting peaceful protesters or using crowd control tools against them, just as news broke that Trump’s justice department desperately launched an investigation into whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey impeded immigration enforcement through their public opposition.
US District Judge Kate Menendez ruled that DHS and ICE agents working in Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota must refrain from “using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity.” Menendez also barred federal agents from stopping vehicles from following them if they maintain a safe distance.
Menendez’s order granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by protesters last month that argued that their constitutional rights to exercise free speech and peaceably assemble were violated by federal agents who retaliated with intimidation, force, and detention.
Menendez wrote that protesters and observers “did not forcibly obstruct or impede the agents’ work.”
“The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly—not rioting,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “We remind the public that rioting is dangerous—obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony.”
Menendez’s order comes as the Trump administration began sending about 1,000 more federal agents to Minnesota last week—in addition to the 2,000 others already deployed in the state.
The Justice Department is also intensifying its assault on Minnesota by targeting Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey. Prosecutors reportedly issued grand jury subpoenas to the pair on Friday.
But the investigation into Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey raises similar First Amendment concerns as the lawsuit filed by the protesters—the right to condemn the government without fear of punishment.
“Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic, Gov. Walz wrote Friday in a post on X. “The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”
On Friday night, Mayor Frey said on X that the subpoena was an “obvious attempt to intimidate.”
In a Friday night post to X, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote, “A reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law.”
But the Trump administration’s claim that its escalation of violence is justified against protesters comes as story after story emerges of violent encounters with federal officers, including using tear gas on a six-month-old baby.
While yesterday’s ruling protecting protesters will likely go to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, where 10 of the 11 active judges have been nominated by Republican presidents, the broader picture is becoming clearer: the administration must know protesters are thwarting federal agents; they know their enforcement is being challenged in court; and they know support for their immigration policies is plummeting.
