The chaos exception to the Sixth Amendment
By 
In Minnesota we apparently have another amendment to the Federalist Society Constitution:
Thousands of people have been arrested during ICE operations in Minneapolis over the past two weeks. Multiple attorneys allege that for some of those detained, including at least one U.S. citizen, the Department of Homeland Security is denying their constitutional right to see an attorney.
Four attorneys told ABC News they have been denied access to their clients at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where they are being held, which they say would violate 5th and 6th Amendment rights to due process and the right to consult with counsel.
“ICE agents were physically restricting me from seeing them,” said one immigration attorney, who asked not to be identified. “I stood outside the attorney visitation room for about four hours on Thursday, trying to see one of my clients who had been there for multiple days. I kept saying, you got to let me see my client. And they just kept repeating, we don’t do attorney visitation.”
[…]
The immigration attorney told ABC News they have visited clients held on similar immigration charges at the Whipple building for the last decade without issue. The visitation denials of the past week, they said, are new and unprecedented.
The Whipple building has been a primary facility where people detained during DHS’ “Operation Metro Surge” are being temporarily held. Most are eventually processed and sent to detention facilities across the country.
The building has also been the epicenter of clashes between anti-ICE protesters and federal agents since an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good on Jan. 7.
The attorneys who spoke to ABC News work independently of one another. ABC News is withholding the identity of three of them due to fears that federal agents could retaliate against their clients still in custody.
Attorneys say they have received a variety of explanations for why they cannot see their clients, including claims that they did not have appointments, that their clients did not ask for them by name, and that the Whipple building cannot accommodate attorney-client visits. None of those reasons is legally valid, according to the attorneys.
“There’s nothing in the Constitution that talks about accommodating the government,” said Attorney Robert Sicoli, who told ABC News he was denied access to his client at the building last Wednesday. “It is a violation of constitutional rights.”
“One ICE agent said if we let you see your clients, we would have to let all the attorneys see their clients, and imagine the chaos,” said another attorney who asked not to be named. “And I said to that person, yeah, you do have to let all the attorneys see their clients. You do have to accommodate that. That’s the Constitution. You chose to put them here. I didn’t bring this guy here, you did.”
Alas, “if we give you your unambiguous constitutional rights we would have to give other people their constitutional rights and then where they would be?” is the kind of intelligence-insulting illogic that makes Brett Kavanaugh very intrigued and inclined to subscribe to your Substack.