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.
So, disrupting a solemn church ceremony from outside the church is legal, but from inside is illegal?
This is a morally confused position. Local government can and should charge targeted church service disruptors with disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, and hit the organizers hard. The church should also have civil lawsuit options should the mayor or police side with the disruptors.
You can protest anything, but time and place factors in favor of civility and decency should be upheld.
I knew something was off about Minnesota when Jesse Ventura was “elected” governor.
I say we trade Minnesota to Canada for Alberta.
https://x.com/albertaseparate/status/1885163587528020435
When Putin wants a country, he simply takes it; meanwhile, the EU does absolutely nothing of significance or concern to Russia.
Trump should take Greenland and get in line behind Russia to wait for nonexistent retaliation from Europe.
‘Their’ Constitution. ‘Their’. That kind of says it all, right there.
The DNC no longer represents an American party. Keith is not a random kook – he represents the modern left in total pretty completely. Believe what you are seeing, classical dems who are on the fence. Do not make the mistake of becoming all that you thought you fought against by continuing in this fashion, if you haven’t already.
That tourists from Canada now believe they will be sent to El Slavador if they dare cross our borders tells you all you need to know about the propaganda. The Nazis wish they had it so good, and so easy. The entire West is in a state of peril, and we seem to be the only light in the darkness.
Made a typo in haste, it is still me, James.
It is I. Me is it? It is me?
James,
I was tracking you. Your syntax, choice of words, logic, reason, common sense was a dead giveaway. OLLY, Lin and some others will occasionally fat finger in you email addy. I have done it too.
I do think as the situation deteriorates and if it becomes another Summer of Love, Fiery but Mostly Peaceful protests, like 2020, I think that will make traditional Democrats really question if voting Democrat is such a bright idea. Also the same logic as the fraud becomes more understood. Granted there are going to be some who will try to spin it that the fraud is necessary to defend American against . . . something. That is just some peoples twisted logic.
Imagine the reaction if someone said that the church bombings in Selma, Alabama in 1963 were the expression of a point of view.
“If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution [of slavery]. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land. [Should freed blacks be made] politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this and [even] if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not … We can not, then, make them equals.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854
Dem priorities: disrupting peaceful worship services; helping child rapists, violent gang members, and murderers evade arrest; biological men invading women’s and girls’ competitive sports, showers, and locker rooms. Nice people.
OldManFromKS,
Do not forget, enabling fraud on a massive scale.
Upstate – there’s much more I didn’t include. Open borders, suppressing domestic energy production, defund the police, support middle-east terrorist organization while assaulting Jews trying to get to class, child sexual mutilation under the guise of “gender affirming care,” cultural Marxism, and on and on.
. They’re our neighbors…
Much of it is to annoy people. They’re betting nothing can possibly happen to all of them. Sure, some will be killed as the foolish Renée Good was but its so much fun and incredibly lucrative. It’s called “act-up”.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been pulling guns on off-duty police officers of color while illegally demanding their citizenship papers.
“Recently, in the last two weeks, we as law enforcement community have been receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations in our streets from US citizens,” he said. “What we’re hearing is that they’re being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause and being forced to show paperwork to determine if they are here legally.”
“As this went on over the past two weeks, we started hearing from our police officers the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off duty,” he continued. “Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happen to them.”
Bruley said ICE “boxed in” one officer on a roadway.
“They demanded her paperwork. She’s a US citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork,” he said. “When she became concerned about the rhetoric and the way she was being treated, she pulled out her phone in an attempt to record the incident, the phone was knocked out of her hands, preventing her from recording it.”
“The ICE officers had their guns drawn during this interaction,” he added. “And after the officer became so concerned, she identified herself as a Brooklyn Park police officer in hopes of slowing the incident and de-escalating the incident down.”
“The agents then immediately left after hearing this, making no other comments, no other apologies, just got in their vehicles and left.”
Bruley said the anecdote was not an isolated incident.
“In fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have similar incidents with their off-duty officers,” he remarked. “This isn’t just important because it happened to off-duty police officers, but what it did do is we know that our officers know what the Constitution is, they know what right and wrong is, and they know when people are being targeted, and that’s what they were.”
“If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day. It has to stop.”
So basically, ICE is now randomly stopping non-white people at gun point and “demanding to see their papers”.
Just like Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR.
I became a naturalized citizen more than 40 years ago.
I took the oath of allegiance with a group of others before a judge at the local District Court.
I vividly remember the judge telling us that we are now US citizens, and that there is no legal requirement to ever prove that to others.
He told us to keep our Naturalization Certificates in a safe place, because there is no requirement to produce it to prove that we were citizens.
Just imagine if the American Founders were still here or their Constitution still held dominion; people of color would not have been admitted to become citizens of the U.S.
That legislation was never legally and legislatively abrogated; it was repealed by the force of arms during the Lincoln “Reign of Terror.”
The Founders gave America Its Nation, It’s Law, and Its Population.
_________________________________________________________________________
Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798, 1802 (four iterations for clarity)
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof….
ATS – then the judge lied to you.
While in the US the government can not out of the blue demand that you produce papers
There are myriads of circumstances in which you are required to prove ID, legal residence or citizenship.
If you drive a vehicle you must produce a drivers license on demand anytime you are stopped in the car.
Drivers licesnses that comply with “Real-id” include evidence of citizenship.
If you are offered employment you MUST prove that you have a right to work in the US – either proving citizenship or legal residence and work authorizations.
If you are detained on reasonable suspicion of having committed a crime – you must provide ID if requested.
If you are arrested you must provide ID.
The instances above involve police officers – I am NOT in detail familiar with the requirements of police officers to provide ID – but they do exist and they are different from people on the street.
Even Left wing nuts are insisting that ICE officers provide ID.
Regardless, the norm is that blanket statements such as “as a US citizen you do not have to produce proof of citizenship” are always FALSE.
This is a simple logic error. It is the difference between Never and s under some circumstancs.
An overview of the law on providing ID to law enforcement.
“The question of when an officer can legally require you to identify yourself is not a simple one, as the answer depends entirely on the context of the interaction”
https://legalclarity.org/when-can-an-officer-legally-ask-you-for-id/
So, Naturalization Certificates are ‘mementos”? and so can be discarded. bet no one does that tho….
If true. Where are the videos?
So basically, mobs of communists are beating Americans for their views and “violating all their 1st amendment rights”.
Just like Nazi Germany and Communist USSR.
And we are to beleive left wing nuts WHY ?
Regardless, you idiots have Elected illegal aliens to positions in Government.
Appointed them to run school districts.
Why should the rest of us beleive you would not also hire them as police officers ?
I am sure that if the Brooklyn Park PD will assure ICE that it has not hired any illegal aliens,
ICE will leave its officers alone.
So ice is the problem huh? Yeah when monkeys fly out my butt
If you beleive ther is an actual civil rights violation – you can go to federal court
“18 U.S.C. § 1983 allows individuals to sue for civil rights violations committed by government officials under the color of law. It provides a legal remedy for those whose rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution have been deprived.”
I am not interested in left wing nut claims. Those of you on the left can not be trusted.
You lie and spin,. you omit salient facts.
If you have an actual civil rights violation – take it to federal court.
Does anyone think for one minute if a group of people disrupted a Somali service in the same manner that Ellison would call that protected free speech. The shoe on the other foot criteria always exposes hypocrites.
Look at you.
A red-blooded American supplicating the wholly unassimilable illegal alien invaders for quarter and mercy and quarter.
What would Ellison say if a group of patriots staged similar First Amendment protests in his mosque?
Keith Ellison is a Muslim and has uncivilized views on how to treat women, Christians and Jews.
The amazing thing is that AWFUL women support him.
That was evidently not peaceable protest; it was violation of law.
It was aggravated trespass, disturbance of the peace, and assault and battery, including breath and spittle contacting churchgoers.
All of these “protests” are unpeaceable, illegal, and unconstitutional.
___________________________________________________________________________
Merriam-Webster
peaceable
adjective
1a: disposed to peace : not contentious or quarrelsome
1b: quietly behaved
2: free from strife or disorder
What they might not teach ICE agents in training:
If an ICE agent is violating rights or other law-breaking.
If ICE agents are doing that, the statute of limitations won’t protect you after Trump leaves office.
If a state prosector indicts and convicts ICE agents, presidents can’t pardon those crimes.
So, you are threatening people doing their job? Then I guess it would be OK for the feds to arrest you for making threats against federal law enforcement. And to quote John Travolta as the villain Howard Saint in Punisher when threatened – Remember we have more guns that you. And, actually, no problem, Vance will protect them when he becomes President after Trump (or Rubio, etc.) for 8 years followed by another R for another 8 years. Lastly, you only have to put up with Trump for another 1096 days, have a great day.
He can blanket pardon without specificity, Biden’s precedent.
Says the pathetic stupid progressive who never heard of the supremacy clause
If ICE is violating civil rights you can sue them in federal court NOW.
I have seen no such lawsuits.
“18 U.S.C. § 1983 allows individuals to sue for civil rights violations committed by government officials under the color of law. It provides a legal remedy for those whose rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution have been deprived.”
Federal LEOs have sovereign immunity from prosecution by State law enforcement – that is not unique to Trump.
A federal Officers actions while on duty can only be prosecuted by the federal govenrment.
Reqardless beyond a bunch of idiotic claims I have seen ZERO evidence of actual civil rights violations.
I would note that threatening to prosecute someone who is obeying the law unless they do something you want is a CRIME,
It is called extortion.
dems lawfare dreamin’
What an unAmerican POS Keith Ellison is. He will get his just rewards one day.
I am not a legal professional, so I have a question…is there not someone to whom Ellison is accountable as a lawyer such as the Bar Association? How can he say blatant legal falsehoods with no accountability?
Putin’s Playbook For Trump
1) Keep dithering on Ukraine.
2) Break up NATO
3) Trigger a U.S. civil war.
Trump is keeping all promises.
Democrats play book for keeping the fraud/grift going,
1) Squash peace deal the Ukraine and Russia tentatively had in Istanbul in the spring of 2022.
2) Sell weapons to NATO members who then send those weapons to the Ukraine.
3) In order to cover up fraud like in MN and CA, manufacture a crisis, chaos, unrest in the streets by defending criminal illegal aliens, which may lead to civil war.
The entire biased, reverse-racist, redistributionist, and socially engineered communist American welfare state and its attendant illegal population-replacement invasion immigration are antithetical, anti-American, illicit, and unconstitutional.
Is this what DJT had in mind either “Affordability”?
“Treasuries fell, pushing long-term yields to the highest in four months, as selling pressures led by a rout in Japanese bonds and fallout over President Donald Trump’s tussle with European allies over control of Greenland weighed on US debt.”
“US bonds started the day in sharp decline amid a fierce selloff in Japanese government debt, which spilled over into global markets. Treasuries then ticked even lower after a Danish pension fund said it will sell its holdings of US government debt, before reversing some losses.”
Thank you DJT
The Japanese bond meltdown had nothing to do with Trump. It was predicted as early as 2023 by economist Bill Fleckenstein on CNBC’s Fast Money. He also predicted gold was going to spike. He was buying gold and miners stock back then.
Upstate, I agree with you 95% of the time and I hit like on almost all of your comments, but please stop defending Trump with this foolish tariff BS on allies over Greenland. Greenland doesn’t have to happen today, tomorrow or next week, it just needs to be secured down the road. Trump is lashing out and making idiotic statements at a very bad time.
People like you, good, smart and strong Trump supporters need to call him out when he pulls a boneheaded move like this. He is probably pi**ed that he blew the whole Iran thing and now China is bringing tons of supplies into Tehran and it looks like a loss for us. He opened his big mouth and he blew it.
Unfortunately Upstate has drunk the Kool-Aid.
He is a completely oblivious, irrational, non-thinking, Trump sycophant.
He believes that Trump can do no wrong, and will defend him no matter what, no matter how insane his absurd antics, no matter how much he abuses his position, no matter how much he threatens world peace and order.
HullBobby,
Knowing the Japanese bond market was going to puke is not defending Trump. There is nothing I could really do about Japanese bonds but I could and did buy PMs as a result in 2022-23. Bought silver at $20oz and gold at $1800.
As with everything Trump, I am in sit back and watch mode. Lets see what actually happens.
Look, UF is a flawless market timer. He never miscalculates timing; his calls are always exact. He has never lost a penny. As the CEO of a global financial empire, he has amassed wealth beyond comprehension. Let him present a charted comparison of his total returns over the past 50 years, benchmarked against the S&P 500.
Hullbobby, unfortunately most Trump supporters will keep dismissing his increasingly stupid moves and actions, as they always do. Some will just attribute it to his very unique form is “sarcasm” or perhaps he’s trolling the whole world. I’m sure you see the stupidity of what he’s doing with the Greenland issue and the letter to Norway telling them off because he didn’t get the Nobel Peace prize legitimately. It seems he’s super obsessed with that and Machado giving her medal to him didn’t ‘hit the spot’ for him.
He needs legitimate affirmation and he’s not getting it.
China is succeeding in portraying itself as a more stable and attractive place to invest and trade with than us. Canada is already making serious trade deals with China. Germany is closely following suit. The dollar is getting weaker and weaker and good ol’ Trumpy continues to make stupid decisions and shooting his mouth. Canada just decided to forgo F-35 purchases and buy Swedish Gripen fighters instead.
I would not be surprised if Trump doesn’t finish his term and the economy continues to stagflate and our debt is used as a weapon against us.
Like you, many are starting to “see” what most of those on the left have been talking about forever regarding Trump.
You literally represent what a fracturing of the MAGA-verse looks like.
So Problems in Japan and Danish Pension funds are Trump’s fault ?
You left wing nuts are guilible.
I don’t find “affordability” in the Constitution, but I do find freedom, as in natural and God-given freedom, free enterprise, free industries, free markets, private property, and no enumerated power to regulate anything beyond “the value of money,” “commerce among nations, states, and Indian tribes,” and “land and naval Forces.”
Congress has absolutely no power to control free markets, including the bond market.
The American government has no enumerated power to do much of anything, but it is mandated to provide the aforementioned freedom in all categories.
When did America lose its grip on freedom?
So right, it was when Lincoln shredded the Constitution, introducing the antithetical and unconstiutitonal communist free-for-all that runs America now.
Isn’t the entire judicial branch sworn to support the Constitution?
. Products are affordable but services skyrocketed. A toilet seat at lowes or home depot 13 dollars and 53 dollars to install it. A toilet 100 dollars, 200 dolls to install. Dishwasher 400 dolls and 400 dolls install. A person could advertise —> install toilet seat and toilet 100 dolls and make money, corner the market.
“The highest in four months” – i.e. still lower than most of the past year.