Trump administration files complaint against judges over media comments

Notably, the United States Justice Department has filed a misconduct complaint against seven federal judges in Minnesota who spoke publicly regarding the pressure their courts came under during President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Key points

• Schiltz was nominated by Republican President George W Bush and previously clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
• He afterwards informed The New York Times that what happened in Minnesota's federal courts during the crackdown "created a grave threat to the rule of law".
• In one ruling, he wrote that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "is not a law unto itself".
• The Justice Department notes it crossed an ethical line by talking publicly concerning the cases.
• The complaint is the latest in a series of clashes between the Trump administration and the judiciary.

Notably, the judges spoke to The New York Times this month regarding dealing with a flood of cases during Operation Metro Surge, an immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests in the Minneapolis-St Paul area from December to February.

In practice, the Justice Department notes it crossed an ethical line by talking publicly concerning the cases.

Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the judges of showing "obvious bias" against the Trump administration and called on them to step aside from any cases involving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

"When we have a situation like we have now, where you have a judge, a couple of judges, just not only violating the canons in our view but also showing bias in what they're saying, we have no choice but to act, " Blanche remarked to journalists.

For context, the judges say they did nothing wrong. A spokesperson for Minnesota's federal court system remarked legal experts had identified that the judges were "well within the ethical rules" when they spoke to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the complaint is the latest in a series of clashes between the Trump administration and the judiciary. It has blocked some of the president's policies and, in a number of cases, accused administration lawyers of failing to follow court orders.

One of the judges named in the complaint, Patrick Schiltz, alleged that the administration did not comply with almost 100 court orders related to immigration enforcement in January alone.

Schiltz additionally pointed to guidance issued by a federal judicial ethics panel in February, saying that judges can speak publicly concerning problems such as the rule of law and judicial independence. "That is exactly what I did, " he remarked.

In short, trump administration files complaint against judges over media comments is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.