The habeas travesty
The habeas corpus phenomenon is making a mockery of the American justice system.
In true Cloward-Piven-Alinsky style, some 672 habeas cases have been filed in the first 29 “business” days of 2026 in the U.S. District Court for Minnesota. That works out to 23 cases per day.
Those cases are spread out over the 17 active federal judges in the district. On behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, those 672 cases are handled by just one or two (or zero) attorneys.
These cases each seek to free one or more individuals held in ICE custody. As emergency filings, the judge acts solely based on the representations made by the detainee.
Take for example Case No. 26-cv-417, U.H.A. et al v. Bondi et al, John R. Tunheim (Clinton appointee), presiding.
The case was filed on January 18. Since then, some 80 documents have been filed in the case. You, the general public, are not allowed to see all but a few of these documents. Judge Tunheim has entered fourteen (14) orders in the case, so far. I am only able to view three (3) of them.
Adding insult to injury, one of the three orders available for public viewing is the judge’s order (Document No. 10) allowing the case to proceed in secret. I’m not kidding.
A motion hearing has been scheduled for later this morning on an unknown topic as no motions filed in the case are available for public viewing.
The detainees have retained thirteen (13) attorneys to represent them, one local lawyer and another dozen from California and Washington, DC (Doc. No. 49). The case is styled as a “class action” involving alleged immigrants with “temporary protected status.”
The federal government is being represented by a single lawyer, and she reportedly has quit the Department of Justice. Whichever unlucky sap has to show up in the courtroom today is facing a contempt of court ruling (Doc. No. 66) and jail time.
A similar contempt hearing was held yesterday for another group of habeas petitions. NBC News reports,
A government attorney who was representing the Justice Department in court is no longer detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota after telling a judge her job “sucks” and asking to be held in contempt so she “could get 24 hours of sleep.”
The government lawyer sacrificed at yesterday’s hearing is named Julie Le. I have no doubt that the job sucks when you are the only lawyer expected to handle 672 cases by yourself.
The old Woody Allen movie Bananas (1971) includes a courtroom scene where the main character (played by Allen) declares the proceedings to be,
This trial is a travesty. It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.
What he said.