Somewhere in the ideological ether, Saul Alinsky must be smiling. Democrats have perfected the art of running interference for radical activists, and Minnesota has become a case study in how the rule of law gets trampled when the Left decides it’s inconvenient. The latest official to earn Alinsky’s posthumous applause is none other than Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Ellison—the state’s top law enforcement officer and a Muslim—appeared Monday on Don Lemon’s livestream to downplay and contextualize the Sunday disruption at Cities Church in St. Paul, where anti-ICE agitators brazenly stormed a religious service. Rather than condemn the mob and defend basic public order, Ellison lent credibility to the very activists who believe laws are optional when ideology demands it.
Lemon, for his part, may have more to worry about than bad optics. Serious questions are being raised about whether he coordinated in advance with the agitators who targeted the church. As Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon disclosed Monday, Lemon could be staring down potential federal charges stemming from the incident.
“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,” she said.
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During his conversation with Lemon about Sunday’s ambush, Ellison remarked, “None of us are immune from the voice of the public.”
? Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison justifies the anti-ICE protesters storming a church service in Minneapolis yesterday:
"None of us are immune from the voice of the public." pic.twitter.com/sFhuD1Nm7A
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 19, 2026
Ellison said:
“The protest is fundamental to American society. This country started in a protest. It’s freedom of expression. People have a right to lift up their voices and make their peace. And none of us are immune from the voice of the public. So I, quite honestly, I think that you’ve got the First Amendment freedom of religion and First Amendment freedom of expression – and I think it’s just something you’ve just gotta live with in a society.”
For an attorney general, this guy seems to not know much about the law – or the Constitution. Nowhere in our nation’s founding document does it say “You have an inherent right to terrorize people on private property.” There is also statutory law – in particular Title 18 USC 247 – that forbids anyone from obstructing others in the free exercise of their religious beliefs.
So no, Mr. ‘Attorney General,’ it ain’t something we “gotta live with.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon also disagrees with the Muslim AG. Dhillon noted Monday that 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 exactly what happened, though. The agitators who barged into that church had no legal right to trespass on private property or interfere with a religious service. Any competent attorney general understands that. Ellison understands it too—and chose to ignore it.
He is perfectly willing to look the other way as long as the street enforcers he protects continue to sow disorder. These aren’t peaceful protesters; they’re political shock troops, and Ellison is providing them cover. The chaos they create isn’t a problem for him—it’s the point.
Meanwhile, regarding the aforementioned Saul Alinsky and his “Rules for Radicals“:
Rule 1: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy.
Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Never let up.
Here’s the problem with Ellison’s standard: if this is the law now, then it isn’t law at all—it’s selective tolerance dressed up as principle. If disrupting a religious service is simply “something you’ve got to live with,” then that rule must apply universally, not just when the targets are politically convenient.
Of course, no one actually believes Ellison would shrug off the same conduct if it were directed at a mosque or any other Left-approved institution. The outrage would be immediate. The prosecutions would be swift. The talking points would write themselves.
But the Trump administration isn’t going to wait on Ellison to do the right thing and seek prosecutions because they know he won’t. Could be he’s a target too, though, if the worsening fraud scandal in his state is any indication…
