Public Statement and Call to Action: LDAD Calls on Lawyers to Defend the Constitution
Constitutional Rights Are Being Taken Away in Minnesota
We’ve seen with our own eyes what is happening in Minnesota. The killing of two American citizens at the hands of federal agents is part of a broader assault on the Constitution.
What is happening in Minnesota, and what we have seen in other American cities, is not aggressive law enforcement; it is a sustained campaign of lawlessness by agents of the federal government. Administration enforcement priorities and federal leadership are driving immigration enforcement operations that violate constitutional limits and established legal constraints.
Silence now is complicity
ICE and Border Patrol agents are wreaking havoc in Minnesota. The federal government is systematically and deliberately violating the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution, including by:
Attacking, seizing, and arresting peaceful protesters and legal observers in defiance of their First Amendment freedoms of speech and assembly and their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.
Breaking into people’s homes without judicial warrants and arbitrarily stopping them in their cars with complete disregard for the Fourth Amendment as well as the most basic elements of the constitutional due process rights to which everyone is entitled.
Justifying the killing of Alex Pretti by describing the exercise of his Second Amendment rights as a basis for the use of lethal force against him.
Holding individuals without due process and denying access to counsel, in violation of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.
Using excessive force against protestors and others, and engaging in extra-judicial killings, which amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
These continued actions are tantamount to the functional suspension of constitutional protections. No emergency declaration authorizes this. No statute permits it. No branch of the federal government is intervening to stop it.
The Department of Justice Has Become the Lawless Actor
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s recent letter to Governor Walz exemplifies this collapse of the rule of law. Framed as a call for “law and order,” the letter reveals the true agenda of the federal government:
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It seeks Medicaid and SNAP data that, in actual effect, would help ICE identify individuals for deportation rather than pursue legitimate enforcement.
- It calls for the repeal of sanctuary policies, citing crime concerns unsupported by evidence, suggesting a political rather than a public safety motive.
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It seeks federal access to voter rolls, raising grave concerns about election interference.
This is not enforcement. It is authoritarian overreach and a ruse, dressed in legal language.
What Lawyers Must Do—Now
Lawyers Defending American Democracy calls on lawyers, law firms, and legal institutions to act immediately.
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Speak Out: Now is the time to state, loudly and publicly, both individually and as organizations, that what is happening in Minnesota, or any other American city terrorized by ICE, is not a policy dispute. It is the suspension of rights under the Constitution.
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Educate and Inform: When speaking about what is happening, do not be drawn into a discussion of immigration policy, or rhetoric, or how protestors conduct themselves. There are not “two sides” to the question of whether our rights under the Constitution are real or whether protesting is permissible.
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Demand that Your Elected Officials Act: Congress could stop these actions, but it has chosen not to do so. It doesn’t matter if your elected official is a Democrat or a Republican. They need to know that violations of the Constitution cannot continue. Demand congressional oversight, judicial intervention, and legislative remedies.
This Is the Moment That Will Affect the Future of This Country
If lawyers do not defend the Constitution when doing so is difficult, costly, or inconvenient, then our profession has abandoned its purpose.
While constitutional protections are stripped away, political, legal, and corporate elites that once claimed to stand for democratic values now stand silent. History will treat that silence with the condemnation it deserves.
Not later.
Not quietly.
Now.
Thank you,
Lawyers Defending American Democracy
