In Re: Grand Jury Subpoenas (Minnesota, 2026)

On June 17, 2026, Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota quashed all six federal grand-jury subpoenas that the Justice Department had served in January 2026 on the offices of Governor Tim Walz, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Minnesota Attorney General, and the Hennepin and Ramsey County boards. The subpoenas had demanded sweeping records about each office's cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The court found that the subpoenas were not part of a genuine criminal investigation but were an unconstitutional effort to coerce Minnesota officials into helping enforce civil immigration law and to retaliate against them for refusing, an improper use of the grand jury. The court granted every motion to quash. It also ordered the matter unsealed over the Department's objection, finding that the investigation had already been made public and that the public had a strong interest in knowing about the Department's misuse of the grand-jury process. The order was unsealed and publicly docketed on June 22, 2026, and the miscellaneous matter was later closed.