Federal Judge Rules Against Feds, Orders Overhaul Of Treatment Of Detainees At Whipple Building

By J. Patrick Coolican and Alyssa Chen, Minnesota Reformer

February 16, 2026

A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump issued a pointed ruling Thursday, ordering the federal government to overhaul how detainees are treated at the Whipple Federal Building to ensure their constitutional right to counsel is honored.

“The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights,” wrote U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel.

The order, which is in effect for 14 days, came in response to a lawsuit alleging that the constitutional rights of detainees at Whipple are routinely violated.

Brasel is requiring the government to provide people detained there access to in-person visits with their lawyers seven days per week, as well as “free, private, and unmonitored” telephone calls to counsel and family within one hour of their detention and prior to being transferred out of state.

Previously, the Star Tribune reported on detainees living in inhumane conditions inside Whipple, including a Muslim woman shackled at the ankles and kept for 24 hours inside a bathroom with three men.

The ruling is just one of many rebukes federal judges have leveled against the Trump administration in recent weeks, from jurists appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents alike.

Patrick J. Schiltz, chief judge of the federal district court in Minnesota and a former clerk to conservative icon Antonin Scalia, ripped the Trump administration for ignoring dozens of court orders in a ruling last month.

Last week, Federal District Judge Jerry Black Blackwell, an appointee of President Joe Biden, lambasted the government’s penchant for ignoring court orders: “The DOJ, the DHS, and ICE are not above the law. They do wield extraordinary power, and that power has to exist within constitutional limits.”

Brasel’s order came down hours after the federal government said it was winding down Operation Metro Surge, which brought 3,000 immigration enforcement agents here starting in December.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..