It’s been news here but I haven’t seen it in national news outlets so I’ll pass it along. The plaintiffs in the case filed against ICE for its use of anti-riot measures against protestors have moved to dismiss it. Jason Meisner reports at the Chicago Tribune:
In what appears to be a longer-term legal strategy, the plaintiffs in an injunction case limiting the use of force by immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz on Tuesday abruptly moved to dismiss the underlying lawsuit in the midst of an appeal by the Trump administration.
In the request—which followed ominous signs from the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals—lawyers representing a consortium of media outlets and other plaintiffs said that Chicago’s immigration enforcement surge “has ended” for now, with no reports of unconstitutional behavior by agents in nearly a month.
If the dismissal is granted, it would effectively end a case that came to symbolize the havoc Midway Blitz caused in Chicago and led to U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis issuing a scathing ruling limiting the use of chemical munitions against journalists and protesters, among other restrictions.
In a statement Tuesday, the board for the Chicago Headline Club, the lead plaintiff in the case, claimed victory, saying that Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovinaud and his team of agents left town soon after Ellis’ injunction was entered on Nov. 8.
I can’t help but think that “longer-term legal strategy” is a remarkably rosy way of putting it. Several other possibilities come to mind.
One is that Judge Ellis had gotten out over her skis and her judgment had already been stayed by a three judge panel at the Court of Appeals. Might the plaintiffs have recognized that the decision was about to be struck down anyway and the precedent would be quite bad for them? If the case were being handled pro bono (which I suspect) it was about to become very expensive very quickly. Besides, since Operation Midway Blitz was already completed, they had already accomplished much of what they set out to accomplish—ICE leaving Chicago.
