A Minnesota judge on Thursday gave a “rare” interview to the New York Times to double down on his “stark” warning about President Donald Trump.
Judge Patrick J. Schiltz spoke out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement months after it violated nearly 100 federal court orders, some mandating the release of undocumented immigrants, the Times reported.
“The Trump administration’s disregard for court orders was clogging his courthouse to a near standstill, contributing to rising tensions in the protest-filled city and, ultimately, putting the constitutional order at risk,” the report stated.
“What happened in Minnesota’s federal court, he said, ‘created a grave threat to the rule of law.’”
Schiltz was appointed by former President George W. Bush, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the report notes.
But decades spent working with conservatives did not prepare him for President Donald Trump’s Justice department, Schiltz told the Times.
“He said he thought the violations were largely the result of incompetence and staffing shortages, but also worried that the Justice Department had not taken their corrosive effect seriously enough,” the Times reported.
Justice department spokesperson Kiersten Pels scoffed at Schiltz in a comment to the Times, stating she found it “remarkable that sitting federal judges are giving on-the-record interviews.”
But Schiltz said he felt compelled to speak out after, as the Times noted, two American citizens were killed by federal agents.
“The rule of law to democracy is like oxygen to a human body,” he said. “It is something that you absolutely need to survive, and yet it’s something that people just take for granted.”
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