For being his state’s top law enforcement official, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has adopted some positions that can only be considered radical: He won’t enforce the state’s own laws and he doesn’t want the federal government enforcing its laws either.
His decision to stray into an agenda that can only be described as protecting crime comes amid an attack by radical leftists, including personality Don Lemon, who barged into a Christian church over the weekend, violated the congregation’s civil rights by disrupting their worship, and made a stunt of the entire episode.
Ellison is, of course responsible for enforcing state laws that would include those against trespass and disorderly conduct.
But he won’t, and he made it clear that Christians in his state will just have to put up with such ambushes.
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INFURIATING
Keith Ellison, the attorney general who pledged to “fight” Minnesota’s agencies for Fighting Our Future fraudsters, betrays stunning ignorance or intentional misrepresentation of the law.
First, he says “none of us are immune from the voice of the public” when it… pic.twitter.com/DaHhk2JF8I
— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) January 20, 2026
He conceded there are protections for religious worship, but there also are protections for speech, and he said no one is “immune” from the “voice of the public.”
An analysis of his comments revealed his stunning misrepresentations of the law including that speech rights allow people to invade the sanctity of a church service.
“Second, he says ‘chanting can never be the basis of a criminal act.’ If you’re trespassing in order to chant, it absolutely can. Third, he rightly mentions that the KKK Act penalizes people for violating their civil rights, but doesn’t acknowledge that interrupting a church service would be a violation of someone’s right to free exercise. Fourth, and most egregiously, he suggested the FACE Act—which specifically mentions protecting houses of worship, alongside clinics—cannot be used to protect churches from harassment and obstruction.”
Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley pointed out that Ellison, a Muslim leftist, not only is refusing to enforce state law, but is demanding that the federal government not enforce its law either.
“One would think that a mob action against a church would be something that would transcend political divisions as a grotesque and chilling act. If you thought that, you do not know Keith Ellison,” Turley wrote. “Notably, in the CNN interview, Host Erin Burnett raised the incident due to its ‘bad optics’ as opposed to the outrageous attack on a house of faith. Yet, Ellison was not even willing to take that lead in objecting to the simple optics as opposed to the denial of religious exercise. He insisted that this is ‘a First Amendment activity’ and not a crime.”
Turley, whose career includes advising Congress on constitutional questions, said, “He is wrong. Protesting outside of the church is a First Amendment activity. Disrupting church services and abusing congregants inside the church is conduct, not speech.
“Ellison is supposed to enforce state law without favoritism. Instead, he attacked the Trump Administration, saying, ‘If Trump likes you, you can do no wrong.’ There may be good-faith concerns over critics being targeted by this Administration. However, Ellison is the last person who should raise such objections.
“There is not even a suggestion of self-awareness as Ellison dismisses any enforcement of his own laws against protesters who trespassed and engaged in disorderly conduct — putting aside the targeting and disruption of religious services. Putting aside his own refusal to investigate or prosecute, Ellison has also declared that there are no grounds for federal charges. He is wrong. There are a variety of possible federal laws that could be enforced.”
A commentary at RedState explained, “Ellison, who is Muslim and the top law enforcement officer in the state, appeared Monday on Don Lemon’s livestream to discuss the Sunday ambush of services at Cities Church in St. Paul by a horde of anti-ICE agitators. Lemon, it should be noted, could be in a great deal of legal trouble himself over the disgraceful incident, having possibly colluded ahead of time with the agitators who stormed the church. As Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, revealed Monday, Lemon could face federal charges, saying, ‘He went into the facility, and then he began ‘committing journalism.’ As if that is a shield from being an embedded part of a criminal conspiracy. It isn’t.'”
Where Ellison’s message to Christians was “tough luck,” Dhillon had another perspective.
She pointed out both the FACE Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act could be used to prosecute those who ‘threaten[ed], hurt, or intimidate[d] people to prevent them from exercising their God-given rights.’ Keith Ellison knows full well that the ambushers had no right to enter the private property of the church and stop the faithful from worshipping. He’ll happily turn a blind eye to it, of course, as long as the brown shirts for whom he provides cover continue to create chaos. Chaos, of course, is Ellison’s justification for seizing more power,” the commentary said.
Turley said, “Ellison is a curious form of attorney general who opposes the actual enforcement of laws. Ellison is refusing to enforce his own laws while suing to bar the federal government from enforcing its own laws. He is akin to a doctor who opposes the actual administration of medicine. In some ways, Ellison has proven the perfect Antifa Attorney General, a law enforcement officer who supports the mob while denouncing the police.
“Ironically, Ellison has made the case for increasing federal enforcement in his state. He has shown a pronounced disinclination to enforce laws against his political allies. He has created the very vacuum that is pulling federal personnel and resources into his state.”
‘These people are professionals!’ Trump says church invaders should be ‘thrown out of the Country’
