DOJ defies judge, arrests Don Lemon and other journalists covering church protest

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. 248), passed in 1994, prohibits using force, threats, or physical obstruction to interfere with people seeking reproductive health services OR exercising religious freedom at places of worship. Senator Orrin Hatch added the religious-worship provision during the bill's passage, arguing First Amendment religious liberty deserved equal protection.

Between 1994 and 2024, DOJ brought 211 FACE Act cases. According to data obtained by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), 205 cases targeted pro-life activists. Under Biden, DOJ combined FACE Act charges with 'conspiracy against rights' charges under the Ku Klux Klan Act, increasing potential sentences from six months to over ten years.

After Micko refused to sign arrest warrants, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen personally called the court demanding review by a district judge. Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz called this request 'unheard of in our district.' The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals denied DOJ's emergency petition to compel the lower court to sign warrants.

DOJ empaneled a grand jury on Jan. 29, 2026. The grand jury returned indictments allowing FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agents to arrest Don Lemon and three others (Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, Jamael Lydell Lundy) on Jan. 30.

Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee who clerked twice for Justice Antonin Scalia and later recommended Amy Coney Barrett for a Scalia clerkship, ordered all three initially detained protesters released on their own recognizance. He ruled DOJ hadn't proved the defendants engaged in crimes of violence.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, stated: 'We are just at the beginning of this process. I intend to identify and find every single person in that mob that interrupted that church service in that house of God and bring them to justice.'

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) argued on Don Lemon's podcast that the FACE Act was 'designed to protect the rights of people seeking their reproductive rights' and questioned how DOJ was 'stretching' the law to apply to church protesters. The magistrate judge's wife, Caitlin Micko, reportedly works as an assistant attorney general in Ellison's office.