As PJ Media previously reported, the ICE agent who shot Renee Good in self-defense is unlikely to face charges for doing so. However, the left is still exploring options to grandstand its opposition to immigration enforcement. Minnesota Democrats are even looking at suing the federal government to stop it from enforcing immigration law in their state.
If the very concept sounds absurd to you, it should, and even CNN’s legal analyst Elie Honig said this effort is doomed to fail.
During a discussion with Anderson Cooper, Honig, a former federal prosecutor, made it clear that blue state efforts to sue Immigration and Customs Enforcement amount to political theater rather than a viable legal strategy. Minnesota, like Illinois before it, is asking a federal judge to do something courts simply do not do: block federal agents from enforcing federal law.
“Former Federal Prosecutor and CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig is here,” Cooper began. “I mean, does this lawsuit have any chance of doing anything?
Honig did not hedge. “No, I don’t think so.”
He explained that Minnesota’s request runs headlong into the Constitution itself. “What they’re asking, the state of Minnesota is asking a federal judge to throw ICE out of the state and to prohibit ICE from enforcing federal law in the state,” Honig said. “There’s simply no precedent for that.”
That absence of precedent matters. According to Honig, neither Minnesota nor Illinois cited any cases supporting their claims, because none exist. “These lawsuits – Illinois and Minnesota, both filed similar lawsuits, have no precedent cited in there,” he said.
The reason is straightforward. “To do that would violate the supremacy clause, which says the states cannot block the feds from doing their federal duties,” Honig explained. In other words, states do not get veto power over federal law enforcement simply because progressive activists demand it.
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At most, Honig suggested, the lawsuit could produce a procedural sideshow. “The one thing that Minnesota might get out of this, depending on the judge, the judge could want a hearing and could ask ICE some of the questions you just asked, Sen. Klobuchar, about training and protocols,” he said. “But they’re not going to win, but they might get some information.”
The conversation then shifted to Minnesota officials floating the idea of a state-level investigation into the shooting of Renee Good, even without federal cooperation. Honig warned that such a path invites chaos.
“The worst-case scenario is if you have two separate parallel investigations, states here and feds here,” he said. “I mean, there’s only one piece of the forensics, right? There’s only one car here. That’s crucial. There’s only one set of ballistics and shell casings.”
Splintered investigations, he noted, undermine any serious pursuit of truth. “Different witnesses are going to talk to different sides. It’s a disaster,” Honig said. “The way this needs to be done is collaboratively, together.”
While no federal charges are expected against the ICE agent, there is a possibility of state-level charges, but even Honig conceded that doing so would face steep legal obstacles.
“So they can charge. There’s nothing preventing the state from charging,” he said. But that theoretical authority quickly runs into federal protections. The agent would likely seek to move the case into federal court, and then assert immunity.
That would trigger a legal fight over whether the agent exceeded his authority, a battle that would heavily favor the federal government. “So the bottom line is, yes, the state can theoretically bring charges, but they would have legal hurdles once they did that.”
For all the rhetoric from the left, CNN’s own analysis confirms what constitutional law and common sense has long established. States cannot sue to stop the federal government from enforcing federal law, and judges are not going to rewrite the supremacy clause to satisfy leftist outrage.
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