Appeals court rejects DOJ’s request to arrest Don Lemon, other church protesters
Quick Summary
- Appeals court rejects DOJ's request to arrest Don Lemon and other church protesters.
- Court rules government failed to establish adequate means for requested relief.
- Protesters demanded resignation of a lay pastor linked to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
An appeals court has rejected a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to arrest liberal commentator Don Lemon and others for their ties to a protest last Sunday at a Minnesota church.
Last Friday, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an emergency petition from the DOJ seeking to arrest Lemon and four others for entering Cities Church of St. Paul during a worship service as activists demanded the resignation of a lay pastor who works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — upholding an earlier lower court ruling.
Circuit Judge L. Steven Grasz, a Trump appointee, authored a brief concurring opinion stating that “the government has failed to establish that it has no other adequate means of obtaining the requested relief.”
Last week, Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko authorized arrest warrants for three individuals believed to be leaders of the church protest but rejected arrest warrants for former CNN anchor Lemon and one of his producers, reports Politico.
Lemon and his producer were given advance notice of the Cities Church protest, with Lemon attending as a journalist and later defending the demonstrators' actions.
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ Civil Rights Division, took to social media to reject Lemon’s claims that the First Amendment protects the protesters.
“A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest!” Dhillon tweeted. “It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service.”
Officials with the Trump administration have argued that the actions of the protesters violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, enacted in 1994, which includes a provision protecting houses of worship from physical intimidation.
The church protesters, which included members of the Racial Justice Network and Black Lives Matter Minnesota, chanted slogans like "ICE out!" and demanded justice for Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot in Minneapolis earlier this month by a federal immigration officer.
