Top DOJ official asks judges to step aside from immigration cases

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the Justice Department's third-ranking official, has asked two Minnesota federal judges, Patrick Schiltz and John Tunheim, to remove themselves from separate immigration-related matters. His filings contend that interviews both judges gave to the New York Times, in which they voiced worries about how the administration conducted its Minnesota enforcement push known as Operation Metro Surge, undermine their appearance of impartiality. Days earlier, Woodward also sought, unsuccessfully, to sideline Washington judge Ana Reyes from a dispute over Donald Trump's plans for a public golf course; she answered that the department had used selective quotations to build a baseless motion, according to CBS News.

Schiltz is handling a government attempt to revoke a Minnesota man's citizenship, and he has set a hearing on the request for Nov. 23. Tunheim presides over the prosecution of a South African national who denies two counts of voting unlawfully in 2024. Woodward argued that Tunheim may see those charges as unjustified.

Judicial ethics experts expect the motions to fail and call them unusual, particularly from the government. Stephen Gillers of New York University described them as performative, designed to erode public trust in courts.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CBS News’s reporting. Read the full story at CBS News →