DOJ sued Franklin County Municipal Court to strike down its ban on warrantless ICE arrests at the courthouse

On August 25, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against the Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus, Ohio, naming Administrative and Presiding Judge Jessica D'Varga and the court's director of security, Enoch White, as defendants in their official capacities. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (No. 2:26-cv-01025), challenges the court's Rule 2.10, adopted in March 2026 after public pressure over ICE activity at the courthouse, which bars civil immigration arrests of people present at the courthouse for a proceeding or other lawful court business unless carried out under a judicial warrant. DOJ's complaint says ICE had arrested at least twelve people at the courthouse in recent years before the rule took effect, and that no civil arrests have occurred there since.

DOJ argues the rule is preempted by federal immigration law and violates the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, and it asks the court to declare the rule unconstitutional and to permanently enjoin its enforcement. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. and Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division said in Justice Department statements that the rule "obstructs federal law enforcement" and that ICE has had to conduct riskier "at-large" arrests elsewhere since the rule took effect, including two incidents in which Columbus ICE officers were hospitalized during at-large arrests, according to the complaint. The suit does not target a similar rule at the separate Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said the city "stand[s] with the court" against the lawsuit, calling ICE's courthouse enforcement "unwelcome and unnecessary" and warning that the suit would turn a courthouse into "a tool of discrimination." The suit is the latest in a Justice Department campaign, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, of litigation against state and local measures that restrict ICE courthouse and field operations, following suits against Philadelphia and New York State, among other jurisdictions.