On September 30, 2026, the Justice Department filed a judicial misconduct complaint with the Eighth Circuit, “at the direction of the Attorney General,” against Judges Patrick J. Schiltz and John R. Tunheim and other unnamed federal district judges in Minnesota. The trigger was a September 17 New York Times article in which Schiltz gave a 90-minute interview and, according to the article, six of the seven members of Minnesota's federal bench spoke about the administration's immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota. The complaint asks the appeals court to open an investigation, appoint a special committee, and have the judges recuse from matters involving the Department of Homeland Security. It says “Judge Schiltz and Judge Tunheim, at least, have flagrantly violated the Code of Judicial Conduct with their improper and unethical comments to the New York Times.” (The filed PDF is a scan; its quotations here come from a transcription of the page images.)
Attorney General Todd Blanche: “Seven federal judges in the District of Minnesota talked to the New York Times about cases, some of which are on-going, in a manner that the Department of Justice views as a clear violation of their ethical duties.” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the judges were “allowing criminal illegal aliens to run free in Minnesota.” Tunheim had told the Times: “They weren't arresting, in my view, people who were dangerous criminals on the street.” Schiltz responded: “As legal-ethics experts have confirmed, I was acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges in speaking to The New York Times.” A court spokeswoman cited a February 2026 advisory opinion of the Judicial Conference.
An earlier misconduct complaint against Chief Judge James Boasberg, filed by a former top Justice Department official, was dismissed in December after the department failed to provide “sufficient evidence,” CBS reported. Gabe Roth of Fix the Court: “If DOJ doesn't want judges to speak to the New York Times about the agency's aberrant practices in federal court, it should spend more time fixing those practices and less time filing frivolous misconduct complaints.” Some headlines said the Justice Department will “investigate” the judges; it asked the Eighth Circuit to.