Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota Photojournalist Sues FAA Over Rule Banning Drones Near DHS Assets
A Minnesota photojournalist and press freedom advocates are suing the Federal Aviation Administration over a recently issued rule banning drone flights within 3,000 feet of Department of Homeland Security buildings and vehicles.
“You have no way of knowing in advance before you fire up the drone whether you are within a prohibited distance of, say, an unmarked car that ICE is using for immigration enforcement,” said Grayson Clary, a staff attorney at Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which is representing independent photojournalist Rob Levine in the case challenging the rule.
On Jan. 16, while Operation Metro Surge was in full swing in Minnesota, the FAA issued a nationwide temporary flight restriction, known as a TFR, banning drones from flying within 3,000 feet laterally and 1,000 feet vertically of Department of Defense, Department of Energy and DHS “facilities and mobile assets, including vessels and ground vehicle convoys and their associated escorts.”
News organizations immediately pushed back. A coalition of media organizations including the New York Times, Washington Post and the National Press Photographers Association sent a letter to the FAA on Jan. 28, arguing that the flight restrictions violate the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
The press photographers’ association warned its members that lawful newsgathering could quickly become criminal.
“A moving, effectively invisible TFR, applying to unmarked or rented vehicles creates a constantly shifting restricted airspace that journalists have no practical way to identify or avoid,” NPPA President Alex Garcia said in the press release.
Clary said the situation creates a chilling effect on journalists’ exercise of the First Amendment.
“Which, candidly, I think, is likely what was intended,” Clary said. He also argues that the rule violates a fundamental portion of the right to due process — fair notice of what the law prohibits.
Levine, the plaintiff in the case, has run into FAA restrictions around newsworthy events before. In 2016, when the FAA issued a TFR around the protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota, Levine was the only journalist to receive an exemption, allowing him to document the events from the air.
The new restrictions for drone flights near DHS operations has made him think twice before taking out his drone.
“Seeing how these federal agents treated constitutional observers, I was truly worried that going out and flying, I could get arrested, have my drone destroyed, and be roughed up, like they did to so many of those constitutional observers,” Levine said.
The petition for judicial review was filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
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..
A homicide investigation is underway after a person was found shot to death inside a car parked along the Mississippi River, the Minneapolis Park Police Department said.
Around 6:40 a.m. Sunday, officers from Minneapolis Park police and the city’s police department responded to a report of a body in a car at Mill Ruins Park. They found an adult with a fatal gunshot wound at the scene, as well as a firearm.
The Minneapolis Police Department’s Homicide Unit is investigating.
Police said the Hennepin County medical examiner will determine the manner and cause of death, as well as the person’s identity.
A teacher at Prairie Seeds Academy in Brooklyn Park is canoeing 1,000 miles down the Mississippi River to help students reconnect with nature, while raising $20,000 for students affected by the federal immigration crackdown in the process. FOX 9’s Maury Glover has the story.
June 1, 2026
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with a fund that opponents fear will be used to pay off the president’s political allies.
Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia issued a brief order halting the Department of Justice, the Treasury Department, and other high-ranking administration officials from taking any further action to create the fund or make payments from it.
The order came in a lawsuit filed by a former federal prosecutor and a California professor. The plaintiffs are represented by the legal advocacy groups Democracy Forward and Common Cause. The lawsuit is part of a flurry of legal challenges against the fund.
The Justice Department on May 18 announced a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that will make payments to individuals who believe they have been wronged by past administrations. The fund came as part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over the leaking of his tax return information by a former IRS contractor.
Trump’s settlement agreement provides for the creation of the fund overseen by a board of five members chosen by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney. Trump can fire the members for any reason.
Brinkema, a President Bill Clinton appointee, took no position on the legality of the fund in her order. She wrote that her order is to ensure no money is “irreversibly disbursed” while the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order is pending.
She also set a hearing for June 12 — likely ensuring the fund will remain blocked for at least the next two weeks.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Andrew Floyd, a former federal Jan. 6 case prosecutor who was fired by the DOJ in June 2025, and Joseph Caravello, a California university professor who was charged with felony assault on a federal officer after protesting an immigration raid last summer. A jury acquitted Caravello in April.
The nine-count lawsuit alleges in part the fund violates the plaintiffs’ First and Fifth Amendment rights, and violates the authority of Congress.
“Since its inception, this fund has been on a collision course with the United States Constitution,” their complaint says.
Trump has written on social media that the fund will help those “who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration” receive justice.
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..
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