Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison yesterday declared that there are no federal grounds for prosecuting the mob that disrupted St. Paul’s Cities Church and declared the conduct to be “First Amendment activity.” Ellison not only supported the protesters as exercising their First Amendment rights in an interview with CNN, but also indicated an unwillingness to enforce state laws violated by the protesters, from trespass to disorderly conduct.
Ellison is infamous for his prior support for violent groups. When Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison proclaimed that Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. His own son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer.
A past defender of extremist Louis Farrakhan, Ellison has criticized the U.S. Constitution, arguing that “their constitution is the bedrock of American law; it’s the best evidence of a white racist conspiracy to subjugate other peoples.”
One would think that a mob action against a church would be something that would transcend political divisions as a grotesque and chilling act. If you thought that, you do not know Keith Ellison.
Notably, in the CNN interview, Host Erin Burnett raised the incident due to its “bad optics” as opposed to the outrageous attack on a house of faith. Yet, Ellison was not even willing to take that lead in objecting to the simple optics as opposed to the denial of religious exercise. He insisted that this is “a First Amendment activity” and not a crime.
He is wrong. Protesting outside of the church is a First Amendment activity. Disrupting church services and abusing congregants inside the church is conduct, not speech.
Ellison is supposed to enforce state law without favoritism. Instead, he attacked the Trump Administration, saying, “If Trump likes you, you can do no wrong.” There may be good-faith concerns over critics being targeted by this Administration. However, Ellison is the last person who should raise such objections.
There is not even a suggestion of self-awareness as Ellison dismisses any enforcement of his own laws against protesters who trespassed and engaged in disorderly conduct — putting aside the targeting and disruption of religious services.
Putting aside his own refusal to investigate or prosecute, Ellison has also declared that there are no grounds for federal charges. He is wrong. There are a variety of possible federal laws that could be enforced.
Ellison actually went on the podcast with Don Lemon, who has been denounced for filming the targeting of Cities Church. Lemon seemed intent on strengthening the federal government’s case in prior statements by attacking the faith of the congregants. He declared, “I think people who are, you know, in the religious groups like that, it’s not the type of Christianity that I practice, but I think that they’re entitled, and that entitlement comes from a supremacy, a White supremacy.”
The statement mirrored that of organizer Nekima Levy Armstrong, who leads the local Racial Justice Network, who declared that the churchgoers “need to check their theology and they need to check their hearts.”
Ellison then went on Lemon’s show and insisted that there is no federal crime here. He specifically stated that the FACE Act cannot be used in the case because it only deals with abortion rights: “the FACE Act, by the way, is designed to protect the rights of people seeking reproductive rights… so that people for a religious reason cannot just use religion to break into women’s reproductive health centers.”
While it is undoubtedly true that the FACE Act is best known as a bar on protesters targeting abortion clinics, it expressly extends to targeting churches, making it a federal crime to “prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to … exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.” Other laws protect against the denial of civil rights.
Ellison, however, told the public that no such laws exist and that the FACE Act cannot apply to this case.
Unfortunately, this is a signature moment for Ellison, who has long been accused of tailoring criminal enforcement to political agendas.
Ellison is accused of doing little to deter billions in fraud in his state. Recently, a tape was released in which Ellison met with Somali figures later convicted of fraud and agreed with them that they needed to support “candidates that will fight to protect our interests.”
At the same time, Ellison has shown disregard for legal standards by filing a frivolous lawsuit to prevent the federal government from sending additional personnel to investigate fraud or enforce immigration laws.
Ellison is a curious form of attorney general who opposes the actual enforcement of laws. Ellison is refusing to enforce his own laws while suing to bar the federal government from enforcing its own laws. He is akin to a doctor who opposes the actual administration of medicine.
In some ways, Ellison has proven the perfect Antifa Attorney General, a law enforcement officer who supports the mob while denouncing the police.
Ironically, Ellison has made the case for increasing federal enforcement in his state. He has shown a pronounced disinclination to enforce laws against his political allies. He has created the very vacuum that is pulling federal personnel and resources into his state.
At the end of the day, it is actually a good thing that Keith Ellison is in court opposing such federal enforcement. After all, he is the best evidence for the need for enhanced federal enforcement in Minnesota.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the author of the forthcoming “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.” It will be released on Feb. 3 for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Illegal aliens do not have rights under the Constitution. Harboring Illegal aliens is a federal criminal affirmative action. Defending abortionists, rapists, pedophiles, and other criminal actors under liberal license is a violation of human and civil tights. Reproductive rites are a homicidal Choice past six weeks in all jurisdictions, a denial of human evolution and conscience following conception.
Here, here. We should be outraged by Trump protecting Epstein pedophiles.
yes… let Bill Clinton come forth….! no more protection for him.. is that what you are saying?
you agree get them both and anyone else. but trump is protecting this and other pedos. UAW!!!!!
wrong, try again
The ‘founders’ were illegal aliens.
British subjects in British colonies were illegal and alien? WTH, over. Here’s yer sign!
I’m near certain that if protesters invaded a local Mosque Ellison’s analysis and proposed response would be entirely different.
David Easterwood, the pastor at Cities Church in St. Paul, is also an acting field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
If your pastor is also a field director for ICE, then you are not at a church service.
You are at a Klan meeting.
WRONG.
News for you: working for ICE is a perfectly legal and honest job and is not incompatible with being a weekend pastor.
Hilarious news: a law used to prosecute the klan may end up being applied to the Lemon mob.
Now that is funny!
ICE jobs are perfect for overweight good ol’ boys who don’t qualify as mall cops.
Tailgunner Turls: Ellison should prosecute the ICE shooter for 2nd degree murder, the ICE agents who withheld medical treatment from Good while she was still alive for obstruction, and trump, Vance, noem for being accomplices.
Ano
So now you are a doctor?
She took a round to the head, because she was foolish.
You’re equating her with Ashley Babbit?
The moment Good put the 4,400lbs vehicle into Drive, she turned it into a weapon and then hit the ICE LEO with it in an attempt to evade and escape legal detention for obstruction.
What was Babbit armed with? Nothing.
The Good shooting was sad, and clearly unnecessary. By that I mean that she did not have to spend her day trying to obstruct federal officers and even having acted like an idiot she still had a chance to comply when they ordered her to exit the car, but nooooo, she thought she was playing at some sort of game. Bad move. Sad, but her fault. There is a lesson in there somewhere🤔
Maybe the leftards should try actual peaceful protest? I bet ICE would just leave them be.
Well said. The leftards should follow the example of the MAGAtards on Jan 6th.
Ellison is an advocate for performing human rites, the wicked solution, the final solution, for social, clinical, criminal, political, and climate progress under the Pro-Choice ethical religion. Keep women affordable, available, reusable, taxable, and the “burden” of evidence aborted, sequestered in sanctuary states. Visit Planned Parenthood umbrella corporation for womb death care. It’s a forward-looking step to securing the pedo leg of the liberal triad.
Ellison is a Marxist goof. If the braindead voters who injected him into office won’t boot him out, perhaps Ellison could do the Gopher State (and, BTW, the Republic too…) a favor himself: find a comfortable recliner and quaff a few Hemlock Margaritas.
Here is what Ellison said if you put the shoe on the other foot: “the FACE Act, by the way, is designed to protect the rights of people seeking religious rights… so that people for a political reason cannot just use politics to break into a place of religious worship”.
Thank you professor, for pointing out what the law says, and the fact Ellison seems to choose not to see the law for what it is.
Once again, the Democrat party proves it is the party of lawlessness.
Using tariffs as leverage to take over other country’s land is illegal. But Trumptards rationalize it.
As Hugo Gurdon writes in the Washington Examiner:
“Democrats — the party of lawbreaking. He (Tim Walz) and Frey represent what the Democratic Party has become — a party that doesn’t believe in enforcing laws it does not like, which wants citizen resistance to law enforcement, and whose rhetoric encourages the violence and confrontation they deplore.
Recent events in Minnesota reveal that acceptance of lawbreaking and obstruction has become the norm for the party of the Left. It is its modus operandi. It wants to make laws for the nation, but when the nation puts the other party in charge, it wants the laws broken with impunity.”
I am amazed at the lack of self-awareness exhibited by these so-called protestors. They would scream bloody murder if they were subjected to the same abuse they inflict on others.
Guess what Lefties? Your first ammendment rights end at my property line. Likewise, if the pastor, who is the manager of the church property does not like your behavior and asks you to leave you are officially tresspassing.
Come on, Blondi, off your butt and into action. Hundreds of Jan 6 protestors were treated like WTC terrorists over more civilised behavior the the Lemon squad.
“Likewise, if the pastor, who is the manager of the church property does not like your behavior and asks you to leave you are officially trespassing.”
In saner times, HE ejected scoundrels from the temple with a lash.
Re.: “Come on, Blondi, off your butt and into action.” agreed but technically:
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is not a police force itself, but rather an executive department that oversees and contains several of the nation’s major federal law enforcement agencies. While often called the “world’s largest law office,” the DOJ serves as the central agency for enforcing federal laws and represents the U.S. government in legal matters.
Key Enforcement Components of the DOJ:
The DOJ manages several distinct agencies that perform police and investigative functions:
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): The primary investigative arm of the federal government, responsible for internal intelligence and investigating violations of federal law.
U.S. Marshals Service (USMS): The oldest federal law enforcement agency, responsible for fugitive apprehension, witness protection, and judicial security.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA): Specialized in combating drug trafficking and distribution.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF): Investigates crimes involving firearms, explosives, and the illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco.
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP): Manages the federal prison system and oversees the confinement of convicted offenders.
Relationship with Local Police:
The DOJ does not have direct command over state or local police forces. However, it interacts with them in the following ways:
Oversight: The DOJ has the authority to investigate local police departments for systemic civil rights abuses or “patterns or practices” of unconstitutional behavior.
Support & Funding: Through offices like the COPS Office (Community Oriented Policing Services), the DOJ provides grants, training, and technical assistance to thousands of local and tribal law enforcement agencies.
Prosecution: While the agencies listed above investigate crimes, the DOJ’s U.S. Attorneys are the ones who actually prosecute those cases in federal court.
—
In the United States, law enforcement is divided between federal and local levels, each with distinct legal authorities, geographical boundaries, and specific duties. As of 2026, the primary differences are:
1. Jurisdiction (Who They Work For):
Local Police: Operate at the municipal, county, or regional level. They derive their authority from local governing bodies and typically only have power within their specific city or county borders.
Federal Agencies: Operate at the national level and have authority that often spans across state lines. They are part of the executive branch of the federal government, primarily overseen by the Department of Justice (DOJ) or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
2. Legal Focus (What They Enforce):
Local Police: Primarily enforce state and local laws. They handle the vast majority of crimes, including traffic violations, property crimes, and local disturbances.
Federal Agencies: Enforce federal laws made by the national government. They specialize in crimes that affect the entire nation or involve national security, such as terrorism, drug trafficking across state lines, counterfeit currency, and federal civil rights violations.
3. Primary Duties and Powers:
Local Police: Focus on patrol services, community safety, and immediate response to local emergencies. They are the primary entities responsible for maintaining daily law and order in neighborhoods.
Federal Agencies: Often perform specialized investigations rather than routine patrols. For example, the FBI investigates major interstate crimes, while the U.S. Marshals Service focuses on fugitive apprehension and judicial security.
4. Hierarchy and Interaction:
Independence: Local and state agencies are not subordinate to federal agencies. The FBI does not “take over” local investigations unless requested or if the case specifically violates federal law.
Collaborative Federalism: While independent, they frequently pool resources through joint task forces for major cases like drug cartels or human trafficking.
Supremacy: Under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, if a valid federal law and a local law conflict, the federal law prevails.
Summary Table: Federal vs. Local Police (2026):
Feature | Local Police | Federal Law Enforcement
Source of Authority | City/County Government | National Government (Exec. Branch)
Primary Laws Enforced | State & Local Laws | Federal Statutes
Geographic Scope | City or County limits | Entire U.S. (Interstate)
Common Examples | City Police – County Sheriff | FBI DEA ATF U.S. Marshal
Typical Daily Task | Patrol Traffic-Local Crime | Special Investigations – Nat. Security
Many Jan 6th terrorists deserved long prison sentences. Some have gone on to commit further crimes. The hall where Ashley Babbit died probably should have been littered with more bodies as the officers’ calls to back away were ignored.
“Host Erin Burnett raised the incident due to its ‘bad optics’ as opposed to the outrageous attack on a house of faith.”
“Bad optics,” indeed.
I used to like Erin. She was pretty and wholesome looking. She was a goddess on CNBC. I sympathized with her annoyance at Jim Cramer’s on-air projectile vomiting.
Unfortunately, she has taken a sterling reputation and whored it out to MSNBC and CNN. Liberal white women have become a scourge to civilization. Russia, China, Ellison, Elias, Brennan, Clapper… they’d all be nothing if it were not for deranged white-liberal women.
My apologies to all the wonderful women who handle their estrogen like fully functioning adults.
Liberal white women only? In general an embarrassing scourge…
It is a normal process for a person when reading an article or law, to interpret it to mean what they want it to mean. It takes effort, diligence, thoughtfulness and the ability to look beyond, to admit that you are wrong or right. In this case, as in other cases, I think, Mr. Ellison only sees what he wants to see. This as a lawyer in a high government position whose actions will result in the breakdown of society.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison obviously doesn’t recognize that the freedom to practice one’s religion is a First Amendment issue. I don’t understand where he gets his knowledge of the law. Maybe it’s from his distinction between “white man’s law” and African laws. If that’s the case, he has demonstrated complete incompetence and total lack of knowledge.
This really doesn’t look like a freedom of religion or First Ammendment issue to me. It seems more like trespassing, harassment, and threatening behavior possibly crossing the line into domestic terrorism.
Disrupting a chuch service is no worse than storming onto someone’s property and disrupting a family barbecue.
It is a federal crime for a Republican-controlled agency to target a Democrat-controlled state or locality. That alone is a federal crime that – if enforced – could result in prison time.
“Equal Justice under the Law” is American as Apple Pie.
Trump seems to breaking this federal law (a felony crime) by targeting states like Minnesota and California, but largely ignoring Republican-controlled states like Texas and Florida.
Since this is essentially a 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 14th Amendment violation, why couldn’t any state level Attorney General criminally prosecute federal ICE officials?
ICE officials, like all government servants make a promise to GOD to protect Americans’ constitutional rights and promise GOD to not violate the U.S. Constitution. When some (not all) federal officials are that blatantly disloyal to their Oath of Office, why can’t state AGs convene a Grand Jury and indict federal officials?
Would Republicans want a future president violating the 2nd Amendment and 4th Amendment rights of gun owners? That is the precedent Trump is creating.
Are there reliable reports of corruption and outright theft of federal money in TX and FL? Are TX and FL not cooperating in the arrest and removal of dangerous illegal aliens? If so then you are right. If not do some open minded research before you make a fool of yourself..
Red states arent fighting ICE and are allowing them to do their job. Nonsense comment.
Unless the administration has a plan for allowing the action in Minnesota and other sanctuary states, it’s time to replace Bondi and install Mike Davis.
Mike Davis rocks 😊
This blog is a church of demons.
If a church is open to all, then it cannot be considered trespassing.
Please communists, keep it up until the democratic party is no more.
We’ve already lost the Republican Party to hillbilly fascist MAGA. The Dems are going down, too. Which is why recent polls show that 45% of the electorate are calling themselves independents.
https://www.independentcenter.org/press-releases/record-45-of-americans-now-identify-as-independents–a-turning-point-in-american-political-life
The Democrats have deteriorated to the point that they view physical violence as ‘protected activity’. That is, according to the Democrats, criminal acts are protected by the Constitution. Physical violence against those with whom you have a disagreement is a hall mark of every vicious form of tyranny. Before they gained life or death power, the Nazis, the communists, the fascists, and even the third world ‘one party’ tinpot dictators all used violence to stifle, to intimidate, to silence anyone with whom they had a disagreement. So in a sense, in their pursuit of a police state in America, the ‘wanna be’ tyrants, the Democrats, now have the virtue of ‘consistency’,. What they are doing is fully consistent every one of the vicious ugly murdering tyrants of the 20th century.
You’re just mouthing the insanity most here repeat every hour.
Try a new tact soon. Boring.
You should follow you’re own advice.
Dustoff, you are getting better and better with your comments. You’re getting closer to saying something intelligent. Hang in there. We’re rooting for you.
If anyone on the right dared to interrupt worship inside a mosque, Ellison would throw the Quran at them. However, because it’s leftwing fascists inside a Christian church, Ellison excuses and even encourages such violent riots. This is not who we are. Well, this is not who most Americans are. It is indeed how leftwing fascists like Ellison, Lemon and their cronies are.
Anti-Fascist Fighter wrote, “If anyone on the right dared to interrupt worship inside a mosque, Ellison would throw the Quran at them. However, because it’s leftwing fascists inside a Christian church, Ellison excuses and even encourages such violent riots. This is not who we are. Well, this is not who most Americans are. It is indeed how leftwing fascists like Ellison, Lemon and their cronies are.”
No, Anti-Fascist Fighter, these people you’re talking about are not fascists, they’re Orwellian styled socialist totalitarians. You’ve gotta get your rhetoric correct otherwise you sound foolish, much like the foolish Democrats calling the political right fascists.
MAGA might resemble fascism but not really. A large country enacting comprehensive national tariffs isn’t something fascists would do. The only large economies to have ever done that are the USSR under Stalin and China under Mao. And now the US under Trump. Stalin, Mao and Trump… authoritarians.
People such as Ellison were taught to hate from childhood just as Palestinian children are taught from childhood to hate.
Spot on.
People on the “right” destroy churches, most recently Thomas Jacob Sanford who drove into a Michigan Mormon Church, opened fire with an assault rifle, and set the church on fire. When police arrived at his home, they found a Trump/Vance sign. (Sept 28,2005. There were fake and unverified reports of donations to Democrats so don’t bring that up. Throughout history, Black churches especially have been targeted and yes it was mostly Democrats doing the bombing but they were also what you would call “right.” When Democrats did crazy things like integrating the military and federal government and later gave too much support to Civil Rights, most of those right wing Democrats became Republicans.
You can also point to Republicans being the Party of Lincoln and being founded with the purpose of ending slavery. They gave up that claim in 1877 when they made a deal to end Reconstruction to win a contested presidential election. Look at what the right is already doing to mosques before you start suggesting what they never would do. Trump tried allowing ICE arrests at Mosques and other religious facilities until a federal judge blocked it on February 24, 2025, ruling it violated the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Churches and other facilities harboring criminal illegal aliens including abortionists, rapists, pedophiles et al.
And Trump, he’s protecting pedophiles, too.
If you want to find a place harboring rapists and pedophiles, try 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Don’t bother trying to explain to MAGAs that the Republican Party today was greatly shaped by Nixon’s southern strategy of wooing racist Democrats to switch parties in the 60s who were outraged by civil rights legislation. MAGAs are only smart enough to read “Republican,” “Lincoln,” and “freed the slaves,” and draw from that conclusion that it was from their heritage that the call for racial equality was born. Nope.
What I worry about the most is if government doesn’t step in and play it’s role, enforce our laws in a constitutional manner, then some people may decide that they have to take matters into their own hands. Not good. I think most of us have felt government would step in and bring order in a constitutional manner. When that does not happen, I fear some people will want to set things straight themselves. This should be avoided.