Breaking: Law-breaking protesters can be treated like they’re breaking laws.
I know, this sounds like a joke. And it is, although probably not the way you think: It took a federal appeals court to rule that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can use the typical methods of dealing with people who are breaking the law while protesting immigration enforcement in Minneapolis.
“The ruling by the three-judge panel 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals put a stay on a lower court ruling that prevented officers from arresting, detaining, pepper-spraying or retaliating against protesters in Minneapolis without probable cause as anti-ICE agitators continue to confront authorities carrying out enforcement operations,” Fox News reported.
“We accessed and viewed the same videos the district court did,” the ruling read.
“What they show is observers and protesters engaging in a wide range of conduct, some of it peaceful but much of it not. They also show federal agents responding in various ways.”
The ruling found two reasons to strike down the lower court’s decision.
“First, the grant of relief to such a broad uncertified class is just a universal injunction by another name,” the court found. The Supreme Court ruled against universal injunctions in most cases in 2025.
“Even the named plaintiffs’ claims involve different conduct, by different officers, at different times, in different places, in response to different behavior,” the ruling found.
“Second, in addition to being too broad, the injunction is too vague,” the judges added, stating that the district court’s decision to order enforcement officers to predict what “peaceful and unobstructive protest activity” entails would be impossible given conditions on the ground in Minneapolis.
“The videos underscore how difficult it would be for them to decide who has crossed the line: they show a fast-changing mix of peaceful and obstructive conduct, with many protestors getting in officers’ faces and blocking their vehicles as they conduct their activities, only for some of them to then rejoin the crowd and intermix with others who were merely recording and observing the scene,” the ruling read.
The ruling on Monday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said, was a major victory.
WIN AGAINST JUDICIAL ACTIVISM IN MINNESOTA
Our great @TheJusticeDept attorneys have now obtained a FULL STAY in this crucial case.
Liberal judges tried to handcuff our federal law enforcement officers, restrict their actions, and put their safety at risk when responding to… https://t.co/j1kvm7gQGR
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) January 26, 2026
“Liberal judges tried to handcuff our federal law enforcement officers, restrict their actions, and put their
safety at risk when responding to violent agitators,” she wrote in a post Monday evening.
“The DOJ went to court. We got a temporary stay. NOW, the 8th Circuit has fully agreed that this reckless attempt to undermine law enforcement cannot stand.”
For sure, it’s great that the court struck down that liberal judge’s inane ruling — but how much time was lost while ICE’s hands were tied? How many criminals either got away or become emboldened when they broke the law and ICE couldn’t stop them?
This is judicial activism of the highest and most despicable order. There are ways to stop this, and President Donald Trump ought to use them.
Yes, let’s celebrate sanity, but let’s also remember that the sanity only came when the judicially insane stopped the sane from being able to police the criminally insane.
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