United States Attorney for Minnesota Dan Rosen (my friend) appealed the denial of arrest warrants by the magistrate judge in the case of five actors in the Cities Church riot (noted here this morning). As one thing led to another, the matter was assigned to Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz (also my friend).
When Judge Schiltz consulted with his colleagues and advised Danny that he would get back to him, Rosen sought a petition for mandamus frmo the Eighth Circuit ordering Judge Schiltz to get with the program. Asked for his response to a petition that was under seal and that he had not seen, Judge Schiltz filed the angry four-page letter below with the Eighth Circuit. I take my recitation of the course of proceedings from Judge Schiltz’s letter.
The petition for mandamus was denied by a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit, though a concurrence by Judge Grasz states that the government has established probable cause for the arrest of all five uncharged participants. However, he continues “the government has not established that it has no alternative means of obtaining the requested relief[,]” i.e., the arrest warrants. I take it that means the government can either await Judge Schiltz’s ruling on the appeal of the magistrate judge’s denial of the arrest warrants or seek indictments from a grand jury, as Judge Schiltz emphasizes. Extraordinary relief in the form of mandamus ordering Judge Schiltz to do anything is therefore inappropriate.
2/ Concurrence here is key: Government established PC for all 5 arrests BUT mandamus is not needed because government has another way to get arrest warrants. pic.twitter.com/43gQAVZmwP
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 24, 2026
It is a bad sign that the government has royally teed off the chief judge, who must be one of the best district judges in the country. He is a former Scalia law clerk and former law partner of ours, among other things. It appears to me that this matter should be resolved in the ordinary course of business.
