Minnesota
We ran high-level US civil war simulations. Minnesota is exactly how they start | Claire Finkelstein
Since January 6, roughly 2,000 ICE agents have been deployed to Minnesota under the pretext of responding to a fraud investigation. In practice, these largely untrained and undisciplined federal agents have been terrorizing Minneapolis residents through illegal and excessive uses of force – often against US citizens – prompting a federal judge to attempt to place limits on the agency’s actions. The Trump administration is encouraging the lawlessness by announcing “absolute immunity” for ICE agents. But if the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, does not heed the court ruling, the consequences may be nothing short of civil war.
In just the past week, ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, shortly after she returned from dropping her child off at school. They blinded two protesters by shooting them in the face with so-called “less deadly” weapons. They fired teargas bombs around the car of a family carrying six children, sending one child to the emergency room with breathing problems. They violently dragged a woman out of her car and on to the ground screaming. They have shot protesters in the legs. They have forcibly taken thousands of individuals to detention facilities, separating families and casting people into legal limbo – often without regard to their legal status.
Rather than investigate this conduct and the officer who shot Renee Good, the justice department has opened a criminal investigation into the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, and Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, accusing them of conspiring to impede federal agents. Renee Good’s widow is also under investigation, a move that prompted six US attorneys in Minnesota to resign in protest.
As public outrage grows, ICE has escalated its actions, increasingly engaging in what appear to be random acts of violence regardless of immigration status. Governor Walz has placed the Minnesota national guard on standby to support local law enforcement, while Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act – an extraordinary move that would grant him sweeping domestic military powers and potentially sidestep recent supreme court limits on the use of federal troops in law enforcement. One thousand additional ICE agents have been sent to Minnesota, suggesting that Trump is essentially using ICE as a specialized paramilitary force to target protesters and suppress dissent. And the Pentagon has readied the army’s 11th Airborne Division – roughly 1,500 active-duty soldiers – to back up the president’s threat.
This scenario closely mirrors one explored in an October 2024 tabletop exercise conducted by the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL), which I direct, at the University of Pennsylvania. In that exercise, a president carried out a highly unpopular law-enforcement operation in Philadelphia and attempted to federalize the Pennsylvania’s national guard. When the governor resisted and the guard remained loyal to the state, the president deployed active-duty troops, resulting in an armed conflict between state and federal forces. While the location and sequence differ, the core danger we identified is now emerging: a violent confrontation between state and federal military forces in a major American city.
While our hypothetical scenario picked a different city and a slightly different sequence of events, the conclusions we reached about the possibility of green-on-green violence are directly applicable to the current situation. First, none of the participants – many of them senior former military and government officials – considered the scenario unrealistic, especially after the supreme court’s decision in Trump v United States, which granted the president criminal immunity for official acts.
Second, we concluded that in a fast-moving emergency of this magnitude, courts would probably be unable or unwilling to intervene in time, leaving state officials without meaningful judicial relief. State officials might file emergency motions to enjoin the use of federal troops, but judges would either fail to respond quickly enough or decline to rule on what they view as a “political question”, leaving the conflict unresolved. This is why Judge Menendez’s ruling is so critical: it may be the last opportunity a federal judge has to intervene before matters spiral completely out of control.
Third, we warned that senior military leaders could face orders to use force not only against state national guard units, but against unarmed civilians – and that they must be prepared to assess the legality of such orders. Any domestic deployment of federal troops must comply with the Department of Defense’s Rules for the Use of Force and with the constitution, including the Bill of Rights. Even under the Insurrection Act, federal troops may not lawfully shoot protesters unless they are literally defending their lives against an imminent threat – yet such conduct is already happening in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents.
Finally, it is not legal for federal troops to back up ICE agents who are behaving illegally.
Every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution. That oath carries legal force. Service members are not only permitted but obligated to refuse patently illegal orders.
That obligation is now under pressure. Senator Mark Kelly is under investigation by the Pentagon for publicly reminding service members in a video he made with five other members of Congress that they may – and in some cases must – refuse illegal orders. But they were essentially correct: troops must refuse to carry out patently illegal orders.
For members of the 11th Airborne Division, this may soon cease to be a theoretical question. Minnesota may be the first test of whether constitutional limits on domestic military force still hold – or whether the United States is about to cross a line from which it cannot easily return.
A rest area along Interstate 94 in Minnesota has been closed to trucks until about Independence Day to accommodate an almost $3 million improvement project.
The eastbound I-94 Enfield rest area between St. Cloud, Minnesota and the Twin Cities between Wright County Road 8 and Highway 25 is now closed to cars and commercial vehicles as crews resurface the entrance and exit ramps, and update nearby sidewalks.
According to KNSI, the full closure is just the first phase of the project. The rest area will reopen to passenger vehicles only the week of May 11th. During that time, the truck parking area will remain closed as crews repave the lot.
The truck parking lot will reopen the week of June 30th, right around Independence Day. During that time, the passenger vehicle area will be shut down to allow for the resurfacing of the lot. The Minnesota DOT expects the rest area to be fully open by late July. The entire project is expected to cost $2.9 million.
Drivers heading east on I-94 are encouraged to use the Big Spunk Lake rest area near Avon, or to drive a little farther out to the Elm Creek rest area.
Could a UCLA baseball team that’s perfect in Big Ten play get better?
Bruins coach John Savage thinks so, which is a frightening prospect for the rest of a seemingly overmatched conference.
While Savage’s top-ranked Bruins completed a three-game sweep of Minnesota on Sunday with a 5-2 victory at Jackie Robinson Stadium — stretching their Big Ten winning streak to 21 games — he said there’s more upside to be realized.
“Offensively, we just really couldn’t get a lot going,” Savage said after his team went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded six baserunners. “We just weren’t able to put a lot together, but when that pitching and defense shows up every day, it gives yourself a chance to win, and that’s kind of what we did all three games, really.”
Those elements were so good Sunday that they overshadowed Roman Martin’s solo homer in the third inning and Will Gasparino’s two-run shot in the sixth.
Bruins left fielder Dean West made three superb catches — two leaping and one diving — and four relievers combined to give up only one run in 4 ⅔ innings. Closer Easton Hawk needed only six pitches to record a 1-2-3 ninth inning while notching his third save in as many days.
Savage credited Minnesota’s pitching after the Golden Gophers (22-17 overall, 5-13 Big Ten) held the Bruins (36-3) to an average of five runs during the series and said many of his team’s offensive struggles were situational.
“We have very, very good offensive players — some of them are in … little ruts right now, but that’s OK,” Savage said. “These guys play a lot and get a lot of at-bats; there’s a lot of ups and downs.”
When it comes to UCLA’s conference record, it’s all been up.
What it means
UCLA’s sweep is further evidence that the Bruins aren’t getting complacent because of their record.
“This culture is really solid, and these guys truly believe in one another and they’re playing for the team,” Savage said. “We’re very fortunate to have this group, and so they love playing together, so there’s no complacency and there’s no reason to because we haven’t done anything; I mean, you’re 36-3, that’s great, but at the end of the day it’s about getting better and playing your best baseball the next 75 days.”
Turning point
Spotting a dominant team an early lead is never a good idea.
That’s what happened when the Bruins struck for two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
West led off with a single to center field, took third on Roch Cholowsky’s double to left and scored on a balk. With one out, Martin hit an RBI infield single off the pitcher’s glove. UCLA was up 2-0, and the Golden Gophers could never catch up.
Did you see that?
Minnesota did not like it when Gasparino admired his home run by lingering in the batter’s box before commencing his trot around the bases.
There was consensus in both dugouts because Savage also didn’t care for it.
“I thought he probably stayed in the box a little too long for me,” Savage said. “That’s kind of not who we are, and they didn’t like that; I wouldn’t like that either, really.”
MVP
West saved multiple extra-base hits with his catches.
Which was his favorite?
“Probably the diving one,” West said. “I think that was the coolest one. I got to leave my feet and make a play on it.”
Up next
The Bruins will open a five-game stretch of nonconference games when they host Hawaii on Tuesday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Of the many terrible roster decisions Minnesota sports teams have made over the past 30 years, the worst of the bunch may have been trading Randy Moss to the Raiders for the No. 7 pick in the draft and linebacker Napoleon Harris.
Why are we bringing up a trade that happened 21 years ago? Because the New York Giants traded defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 pick in this week’s NFL Draft. It was the first time a non-quarterback has been traded for a top-10 pick since the infamous Moss trade in 2005.
Minnesota traded Moss for the Raiders’ first-round pick, Harris, and a seventh-round pick on March 2, 2005. The Vikings used the No. 7 pick on wide receiver Troy Williamson, who never panned out in the NFL. He had 24 catches for 372 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie, 37 receptions for 457 yards and zero touchdowns in 2006, and just 18 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown in 2007.
Williams led the league with 11 dropped passes in 2006. Minnesota traded him to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick after the 2007 season, where he played in 10 games over two seasons and totaled just eight catches for 64 yards. He was cut before the start of the 2010 season, and that was a wrap on the former South Carolina speedster’s NFL career.
Moss didn’t put up jaw-dropping numbers with the Raiders for two seasons, but he set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches in 2007 with the New England Patriots. He caught 47 touchdowns in 48 regular-season games with the Patriots from 2007 to 2009.
Whether it was trading Moss to the Raiders, the Timberwolves sending Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics — or drafting Ricky Rubio AND Johnny Flynn over Steph Curry — or the Twins cutting David Ortiz and watching him become one of the greatest players in MLB history with the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota sports teams have a long history of making terrible decisions.
The Bengals, meanwhile, gave up the 10th overall pick for one of the best defensive tackles in the league. They’ll likely get great production from Lawrence, while the Giants are now under pressure to get the 10th pick right. New York also holds the No. 5 pick in Thursday’s first round of the draft.
By the way, the Vikings had two picks in the first round of the 2005 draft. After taking Williamson, they used the No. 18 pick on defensive end Erasmus James. He was just as much of a bust as Williams, playing in 23 games in three years with the Vikings. He had four sacks as a rookie, but injuries wiped out most of his 2006 and 2007 seasons before he was traded to Washington for a conditional seventh-round pick.
James was cut by Washington in December 2009, marking the end of his NFL career.
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