Trump administration targets Minnesota judges and more news from the states

Good evening. It was a busy day in the courts: the Trump administration filed a judicial misconduct complaint against nearly the entire Minnesota federal bench, Republican attorneys general are challenging shield laws that protect doctors who prescribe abortion pills, and a woman’s pending execution in Tennessee was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

On Capitol Hill, the U.S. Senate prepared to depart for its campaign break, leaving numerous policy disputes unresolved. And U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated that should Democrats regain control of the chamber, they plan to block President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, including for any possible vacancies on the Supreme Court.

Across the country, “balcony solar” is gaining popularity, though some are worried about the safety of the emerging technology.

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a judicial misconduct complaint to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, accusing “all but one” of Minnesota’s federal district judges of unethical conduct, Minnesota Reformer reports. 

The complaint stems from interviews given by Judges Patrick Schiltz and others to the New York Times earlier this month, in which Schlitz — who until recently was the chief justice for the District of Minnesota — said the federal government’s actions during Operation Metro Surge “created a grave threat to the rule of law.”

The Justice Department and the Trump administration more broadly have gone to war — in U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche’s own words — with a federal judiciary that’s often been the only bulwark stopping President Donald Trump’s expansive view of his own powers. Trump and his allies have personally attacked judges who have not ruled in the president’s favor, and called for their removal. 

The move is an escalation of an ongoing fight between the Justice Department and Minnesota federal judges, as the DOJ continues prosecuting a number of controversial cases stemming from Operation Metro Surge, including conspiracy charges against a group of 15 protesters. 

Related: Minnesota Truth Council concludes public testimony on Operation Metro Surge

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and her Republican counterparts in Arkansas and Alabama sued three Democratic-led states over laws that grant immunity to doctors who prescribe abortion-inducing medication to people in states where it is illegal, Louisiana Illuminator reports. 

The lawsuit, filed directly with the U.S. Supreme Court, alleges laws in California, Massachusetts and New York violate the U.S. Constitution by circumventing its Full Faith and Credit Clause, which generally requires states to respect the laws and judicial proceedings of other states. 

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 allowing states to ban abortion, California, Massachusetts and New York were among the 22 states and the District of Columbia that passed shield laws to block out-of-state investigations and prosecutions against providers dispensing for abortion medications to patients in other states, Stateline reports. 

The Republican attorneys general also filed a lawsuit in federal district court against individual abortion providers in the same three states.

​A federal appeals court temporarily stopped the execution of a Tennessee woman set to be the first female put to death in the state in nearly two centuries, Tennessee Lookout reports. 

​Christa Pike, 50, was set to be executed Wednesday for the 1995 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

Pike’s lawyers have argued for her death sentence to be paused because her original trial failed to account for a history of abuse and neglect as a child.  

​A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that more time was needed to “adequately address and resolve the issues,” brought by Pike’s lawyers. The state has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Pennsylvania: The state Supreme Court will consider whether their March decision finding mandatory life sentences for second-degree murder unconstitutional should apply retroactively.

New Jersey: The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has demanded the Republican chairman of Ocean County’s Board of Elections stop investigating the residency of Democratic and unaffiliated voters, warning the “unlawful mass voter challenge” violates multiple laws.

Nebraska: The state’s highest court heard arguments Wednesday in a Republican National Committee challenge seeking to overturn a state law allowing certain overseas voters to vote.

Indiana: Republican Gov. Mike Braun renewed the state’s gas tax suspension for another 30 days — until early November — and lifted restrictions on the sale of untaxed diesel fuel for trucks operated by farmers and timber harvesters on public roads.

Colorado: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Phil Weiser sued the federal government in an effort to stop or delay the opening of a new immigration detention facility. 

Oklahoma: The state Supreme Court ruled that three transgender residents cannot change the gender marker on their birth certificates. 

Tennessee: The federal government has begun supplying COVID-19 vaccines to be used as part of a free immunization program for low-income children.

Florida: State officials are backing off a push to make it easier for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children by eliminating exemptions for “sincerely held moral or ethical belief(s)” from a proposed rule change. 

Washington: A company providing medical care at the Overlake Medical Center emergency room will refund more than $400,000 to low-income patients under an agreement with the state’s attorney general. 

Oregon: A bipartisan group of lawmakers is meeting to discuss the potential of a cap-and-invest carbon market similar to those in California and Washington, just seven years after Senate Republicans walked out of the State Capitol to oppose a similar proposal.

Beale Street in downtown Memphis was quiet on a recent Friday afternoon. Business owners say traffic is down, in part due to the influence of the Memphis Safe Task Force. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

As part of the task force ordered by President Donald Trump to suppress street crime, Republican Gov. Bill Lee deployed the Tennessee National Guard to the city in September 2025. 

Troops have spent a good deal of their time patrolling Beale Street, and although supporters of the surge say it has cut crime dramatically, Memphis’ most popular spot for tourism and local activities has become a ghost town as a result.

“Downtown is a different place,” said Memphis City Councilman JB Smiley, a member of the Downtown Neighborhood Association who joined a failed lawsuit to stop the National Guard deployment. 

Read more from Tennessee Lookout.

U.S. Senate Republicans did not gain any support Wednesday from Democrats as they attempted to advance a bill that mashed together two hot-button midterm issues: requiring voter ID in federal elections and limiting stock trading for members of Congress, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

The Republican-led bill, titled the Stop Insider Trading Act, failed 53-47 when lawmakers stayed solidly within party lines for the procedural vote. Most legislation requires 60 votes, or three-fifths of the Senate, to advance.

The House-passed measure attached a voter ID requirement onto a base bill prohibiting members of Congress and their spouses and close family members from purchasing certain stocks, and requiring a public notice and waiting period prior to selling stocks. 

House lawmakers approved the legislative package by a 232-192 margin. While 13 House Democrats supported the bill despite plenty of criticism, Senate Democrats did not bite.

Related coverage: Schumer: Democratic US Senate may block Trump nominees for Supreme Court, lower courts

A federal grand jury indicted 10 noncitizens for unlawfully voting in Minnesota, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday, highlighting the administration’s effort to keep election security a top issue, in line with President Donald Trump’s longstanding unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, the D.C. Bureau reports. 

The indictments, which include nine counts of unlawful voting and nine counts of falsely claiming citizenship to register to vote, bring the number of noncitizens charged nationwide with election-related crimes since Trump re-took office last year to 90. The census reports 154 million people voted in the 2024 election.

Related coverage: 

Fifty years after the Hyde Amendment was first used as a provision in federal appropriations bills to bar federal funding for abortions, anti-abortion groups worry its use could end with a new congressional majority, Stateline reports.

The Hyde Amendment was first passed on Sept. 30, 1976, three years after Roe v. Wade guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion care. The clause marked one of the first legislative victories for anti-abortion groups after the Roe decision. 

In the decades since, it has been added to every appropriations bill passed by Congress, restricting federal Medicaid dollars from paying for abortion care except in limited cases of rape, incest or to prevent a pregnant patient’s death. The result has left countless people without a way to pay for the procedure, which advocates for abortion access say causes more abortions to happen later in pregnancy and unnecessarily endangers patients’ health.

As more polls and strategists indicate Democrats could take majorities in both chambers of Congress in January, some anti-abortion advocates fear such a change could be the most serious threat to the Hyde Amendment’s future since it was nearly repealed in 2022. 

Over the past year and a half, a dozen states have embraced a new vision for solar power: small, cheap panels that can be hung from a balcony or porch, be plugged into a standard wall outlet and take a dent out of residents’ utility bills, Stateline reports. 

Twelve states — Republican and Democratic alike — have recently passed bills authorizing residents to install such systems. Nine have been signed into law, while three are awaiting signatures from a governor. 

But for most Americans, even some in states that have passed laws, the systems still sit in a legal gray area. That’s because the “plug and play” simplicity that creates balcony solar’s appeal might not yet work safely with most household electrical systems, experts and utilities say.

Related coverage: 

Alaska’s decades-long quest to obtain millions of acres of land from the federal government under the Alaska Statehood Act is getting closer to an end, Alaska Beacon reports. 

But because the state is getting closer to its goal, its requests now exceed a limit in federal law. 

This week, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources announced that it is preparing to surrender the claims to as much as 5.7 million acres scattered across the state, an area collectively bigger than New Jersey.

The original 1958 Statehood Act gave Alaska permission to take over 105 million acres of federal land, but the state could — and did — target millions of acres more than that before the selection period closed in 1993. 

The state’s selections have paid off in a big way: The vast state-owned Prudhoe Bay oil fields were originally controlled by the federal government before being selected by the state in 1964.

Earlier this year, the federal government removed restrictions that had blocked the transfer of 1.4 million acres along the Dalton Highway and trans-Alaska oil pipeline. That leaves about 3.2 million acres left to be transferred. 

Under federal law, the state can select no more than 125% of the acreage left to be transferred, which means that as the balance shrinks, Alaska needs to surrender some claims.