Kyle Cheney

JUST IN: DOJ tells the court that it has taken down "several thousands" of documents from the Epstein Files website after victim privacy concerns were raised. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: Judge Cobb has barred DHS from preventing members of Congress from visiting immigration detention facilities without notice, saying the administration's policy likely violated the law requiring their unfettered access. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

And here's a text-heavy order from Judge Sorokin on Friday saying ICE failed to heed his orders to ensure a detained woman was receiving epilepsy medication. He threatened contempt if the meds were not provided. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72181...

Judges have continued churning out rulings w/ increasing outrage about ICE's arrest and detention practices.

Here's Judge Tunheim lamenting the arrest of a daycare cook, with parents and kids watching:

"The court is distrubed by the facts of this case." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: As he released 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, Judge Biery warned of vast lawlessness and inhumanity in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. He said courts amounted to “a judicial finger in the dike.”

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

NEW: Judge Menendez rejected Minnesota's effort to block Operation Metro Surge, despite acknowledging profound and "heartbreaking" consequences it was having on daily life in the state.

w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social @G_Svirnovskiy

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

NEW: It's not just Minnesota, judges across the country are calling out ICE for violating court orders with regularity.

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

JUST IN: Donald Trump's $10b lawsuit against the IRS goes to ... Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee in Florida.

👀 Judge Magnuson, the one federal judge in Minnesota who has sided with the Trump administraton's detention policies, reject's ICE's indefinite detention of a Somali woman — who had a stroke while in custody.

She was admitted as a refugee two years ago.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Judge Schiltz thrashed ICE for unprecedented defiance of court orders, often at the expense people's liberty from detention.

But for now, he has withdrawn threat to haul ICE leader Todd Lyons into court for potential sanctions

w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

The order by Judge Tunheim, a Clinton appointee, requires DHS to release anyone detained on this basis and return to MN anyone sent to another state as a result of this targeting. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

REAKING: A federal judge in Minnesota has barred the Trump administration from arresting / detaining the state's 5,600 refugees while they await lawful permanent resident status. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

#10 in Tobay Robles v. Noem (D. Minnesota, 0:26-cv-00107) – CourtListener.com ORDER. IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the hearing currently scheduled for Friday, January 30, 2026, at 1:00 pm in Courtroom 15 (MPLS) is CANCELED. See Order for details. Signed by Chief Judge Patrick J. Sc...

Read SCHILTZ’s full order: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: Judge Schiltz cancels Friday’s contempt hearing but lights into ICE, saying the agency may have violated more court orders this month than many others have in their entire existence.

“ICE is not a law unto itself.”

Judge SYKES in California has grown increasingly frustrated that her attempt to grant nationwide class action relief from the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy has not stopped the flood of habeas petitions. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN: DOJ says its attorneys have reviewed and redacted “millions” of pages of Epstein Files material and should complete their review in the “near term.” But they say there’s no specific date or ballpark for the release. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Judge Patrick Schiltz didn’t want attention. Then ICE surged into his city. The low-key George W. Bush appointee confronting Trump’s immigration tactics is a veteran of the conservative legal movement.

NEW: Judge Patrick Schiltz planned to be low-key chief.

That’s not how it worked out for the old-school conservative/two-time Scalia clerk, who is now threatening to hold ICE’s director in contempt amid Operation Metro Surge.

w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

NEW: Minnesota's top federal judge says ICE has been violating court orders repeatedly — detaining noncitizens or rushing them to Texas despite judges' commands.

He wants ICE's director to answer for it "personally," and could level contempt sanctions.

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

👀 Judge Schlitz, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, has ordered the head of ICE, Todd Lyons, to appeal personally in court Friday and threatened him with contempt for the agency’s repeated violation of court orders.

“The court’s patience is at an end.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Judge Menendez expressed deep skepticism about her power to broadly order the end of Operation Metro Surge and how to police the line between appropriate law enforcement and an unconstitutional attack on state sovereignty.
www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

NEW: Trump's vow of "retribution" against Minnesota and AG Bondi's letter of policy demands fueled a federal judge's skepticism Monday about the lawfulness of Operation Metro Surge — but her ruling is far from certain.

w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

NEW: Minnesota's federal judges have been inundated — and become increasingly alarmed — by cases stemming from the Trump administration's deportation surge in the Twin Cities.

Now they're poised to decide whether the surge can continue at all.

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Judge DAVIS wasn't done -- in yet another Sunday order, he upbraids the administration for "an undeniable move...to defy court orders or at least to stretch the legal process to the breaking point in an attempt to deny noncitizens their due process rights
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Suffice it to say, it is unusual for judges to issue this many opinions on a Sunday. Judge Tostrud rules another ICE detention illegal here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

JUST IN from Judge Michael Davis (not to be confused with
@mrddmia
) scolding DOJ for suggesting judges in MN weren't giving serious consideration to ICE's position:

"Since November 2025, the courts of this District have thought of little else." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Great question: In most cases, judges are ordering DHS to provide the detained individual a bond hearing, and then to abide by the results of that bond hearing. I've seen quite a few where the person ends up released. In other cases, judges are ordering release outright and then ensuring it happens.

Yes, the tally I've got since July is roughly 2,400-100.

And the breakdown of judges is about 347 against the DOJ position to 20 in favor of the DOJ position.

UPDATE: The judges in MN are working Sunday. Judge Menendez — who issued last week's injunction against ICE's retaliatory use of pepper spray – just ordered the release of a Kenyan woman arrested while picking up seizure medication at CVS. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

AND ANOTHER: Hours before he ordered the administration to preserve evidence from the Pretti crime scene yesterday, Judge Tostrud ordered the release of a Honduran immigrant he said was illegally detained — and for which DOJ missed the deadline to respond. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

FOR EXAMPLE: Here's yet another MN ruling from Friday: Judge Menendez concluded that ICE was illegally detaining an Ukrainian refugee, ordering his immediate release. She is the same judge who is handling questions about ICE's use of force. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...