The unfathomable Minnesota transcript that must be read, as it tells the reality of America today

"I am not white, as you can see," Julie Le — a government lawyer — told a federal judge on Tuesday. "And my family's at risk as any other people that might get picked up too ..."

On Tuesday in Minnesota, a lawyer made headlines — including at Law Dork — for her shocking statement in court representing that government that the “system sucks.”

On Wednesday, the transcript made clear that it wasn’t just Julie Le — an inexperienced litigator who was on a detail from her job at the Department of Homeland Security to help with the increased caseload resulting from Operation Metro Surge — who said a lot that matters on Tuesday.

It is an unfathomable exercise to read lawyers and a federal judge discussing at length the ways in which the rule of law is slipping through our nation’s fingers, but it is an absolutely necessary document to read for anyone who wants to protect the rule of law — and America.

And, though a lot was made on Tuesday of one comment from Le about wanting to be held in contempt so that she could get some sleep, I want to start by sharing the full paragraph, which adds some important context about Le — who had earlier told Blackwell that she had already threatened to leave the assignment.

Ana Voss, the civil chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota until her already reported forthcoming resignation takes affect, was also in court. So was Kira Kelley, a lawyer for some of those people who brought habeas corpus petitions to the court over the past month. And, finally, there was U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell, a Biden appointee who was one of the key lawyers who prosecuted Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

“[O]n the other side of this is somebody who should not have been arrested in some instances in the first place who is being haled in jail or put in shackles for days, if not a week-plus, after they’ve been ordered released,” Blackwell told Le at one point. “That’s my concern — is for upholding the rule of law and the constitutional rights of all concerned.“

In all, the transcript, which was made widely available on Wednesday, provides clear evidence of what lawyers and the courts are seeing — and thinking — right now in Minnesota, and it is one of the most illustrative, insightful hearings I’ve covered in the second Trump administration.

It also makes clear how difficult the path ahead is.

Following Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz’s order last week detailing “96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases“ in Minnesota in January by way of an appendix, Blackwell was following up — in depth and as to five cases before him in which Le was the government lawyer.

He began by stating the heart of the matter:

Then went broad:

Before diving right into the issue:

And assessing the problem:

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Then, Le got up:

Le, Law Dork reported earlier, had been a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney — basically, temporary help for a specific project, here, the surge. As became clear at the hearing, training was woefully inadequate:

After Blackwell detailed one of the cases where it took several orders from the court after ordering a person to be released — often with no response from the Department of Justice at all — before he got action, the judge summarized the purpose of the hearing as he saw it:

Then, addressing the fact that responses had often suggested that DOJ had provided the orders to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and, in effect, what happened next was on ICE, Blackwell made a notable comment:

As to her ICE colleagues — she had worked as an ICE attorney in immigration court (which, again, is not a court but rather a DOJ entity) before the surge — she said, bluntly:

To get my back-home colleagues up to date that Federal Court is not the same as how Immigration Court operate, it took a long, long, long time and many order to show cause to explain and let them know that, Come on, if you guys don’t fix it, I’m going to quit and you are going to be dragging yourself into court.

It wasn’t just other agencies whose actions looked unacceptable on Tuesday. Le — who, again, started in this role on January 5 — told Blackwell that she still was having issues with her email nearly a month into the assignment. She told him that one release order — an order that a person be released from immigration detention immediately — did not reach her for two days.

In another shocking exchange, Blackwell asked why it was so easy for the Trump administration to fly people out of Minnesota and so difficult to fly them back.

Regarding her potential resignation, she told Blackwell:

Later, she added, “And to be honest, Your Honor, I did put for a request to be transferred back, but no one were willing to come here to stand in front of you to explain and/or to help to improve the system.“

Blackwell acknowledged that, prompting one of the most alarming exchanges of the day:

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When Voss got up, Blackwell asked her, “When this Court issues a release order, who is the person or -- person or office responsible for being sure that it’s carried out?“

After some back and forth, Voss offered up one answer as to the legal claims:

And another as to the ICE claims:

Ultimately, Blackwell rhetorically asked her, “Should I have a hearing and have that agency counsel come down here to answer these questions? Because I do want to know why the orders aren’t complied with and why,“ before continuing on to a more particular question.

After a few exchanges, he then asked her a more generalized question:

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Finally, Kelley — who represents some of those people whose release was improperly delayed — got a moment to speak, and she did an incredible, if alarming, job of recentering the issues and the problems.

Summarizing the problem before the courts in Minnesota — and elsewhere — in the months since the Kavanaugh stops and the harm they cause have spread across the nation, Kelley then told Blackwell:

Addressing the overworked counsel — and, surely, court — Kelley said:

Appropriately, Kelley closed by telling Blackwell, “[W]e need this to be brought back into the Court’s control and into the Constitution’s control.”

Read the full transcript. Truly.

Blackwell said that he was taking the matter under advisement.

By Wednesday morning, Julie Le’s time at the U.S. Attorney’s Office had come to an end — with Law Dork reporting that her detail had been ended.