August 27, 2026News / AnalysisUnited States

The form says Tariff Act of 1930

DHS pulled three years of wire records for two of America's largest unions with a customs-audit summons and asked the banks to keep it secret. This afternoon a Minneapolis magistrate hears whether the people the government indicted get to see the rest.

URnetwork editorialSan Francisco — August 27, 2026

At 3:30 this afternoon in Courtroom 15 of the Minneapolis federal courthouse, Magistrate Judge David T. Schultz will hear a discovery motion in United States v. Sant. The case, announced in June, charges fifteen Minnesotans with conspiring to impede or injure federal officers during Operation Metro Surge — last winter's deployment of some 3,000 immigration agents to the Twin Cities. The first-named defendant, Isaac Auman Sant, is accused of helping coordinate planning meetings, monitoring federal agents and recruiting supporters. The indictment, as MPR News read it, alleges no specific act of violence; U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said the fifteen were "charged not for what they said but what they did."

What the defense wants to see is how the government watched them. On Wednesday, three organizations that rarely file on the same side — the Cato Institute, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the Society for the Rule of Law — were granted leave to file a brief whose second section is headed "NSPM-7 Was Used in This Case to Surveil Dissent" (a 2025 presidential directive; more below). Inside it, with a footnote, is the part nobody had decoded from the motion's public exhibits: Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) secretly obtained years of financial records from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), the Sunrise Movement and Voices for Racial Justice — "none of which has been accused of any crime."

The instrument was a customs summons.

The two summonses are public, as exhibits to the motion. Each is HSI Form 3115, headed "SUMMONS — To Appear and/or Produce Records — 19 U.S.C. § 1509," and each recites its authority as "section 509, Tariff Act of 1930." On 6 March, Special Agent in Charge Steven Schrank issued one to Fedwire, the Federal Reserve's wire-transfer service, for every transfer since 1 January 2023 involving four SEIU entities. On 9 March he issued another to The Clearing House, the private interbank system, for "any and all records" from 1 January 2023 to 9 March 2026 on CWA, the IFPTE — "a Canadian union," the motion notes, with a Bank of Montreal account in Toronto — the Sunrise Movement, and two entities whose names are blacked out. Both forms carry the same line: "You are requested not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time."

What came back was a union's ordinary life. An HSI report approved on 30 April, in a case opened "in accordance with National Security Presidential Memorandum-7," records that the Fedwire return showed SEIU's national office wiring to and from its locals "annuity payments, strike payments, strike supplies, investments, union member dues, retiree dues, medical expenses, and pension fund expenses." Its last line: "This financial investigation involving protest domestic terrorist financing continues."

The form has a history

The customs form has been pointed at the government's critics before. In March 2017, Customs and Border Protection served Twitter with a §1509 summons for "[a]ll records regarding the twitter account @ALT_USCIS," an anonymous account critical of the administration's immigration policy. Twitter sued on 6 April 2017; CBP withdrew the summons the next day. The department's own Inspector General then found that CBP's purpose "was unrelated to the importation of merchandise or the assessment and collection of customs duties," that it "may have exceeded the scope of its authority under Section 1509," and that the office which issued it had, between January 2015 and May 2017, used the same form in breach of its own policy "at least 1 out of every 5 times."

On 11 September 2025, DHS served Meta with two §1509 summonses for the identity of an anonymous Facebook and Instagram creator; Senator Ron Wyden wrote to Secretary Kristi Noem in November calling them "a manifestly improper use of this customs investigatory authority." The same week Schrank signed the union summonses, Reddit told a user that ICE had served a §1509 summons for his identity over posts criticizing an agent involved in a fatal shooting; he moved to quash and ICE withdrew, Reason reported.

Four days after Alex Pretti

NSPM-7 — National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, "Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence" — was signed on 25 September 2025. The file HSI called "Operation Puppet Master," which the government's written response to the motion describes as a "financial investigation to uncover funding sources," was opened on 28 January, according to the motion, "just four days after agents murdered Alex Pretti." Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was shot and killed by two Customs and Border Protection officers on 24 January while filming agents with his phone. The response adds that "Joint Task Force Vanguard was created after the issuance of NSPM-7 and is tasked with 'targeting individuals and organizations engaged in political violence,'" and that its cases "are neutrally enforced and involve both left- and right-wing violence and threats."

The motion, filed 13 August and joined by thirteen of Sant's co-defendants, asks for the paper behind the surveillance: communications between prosecutors in Minnesota and Washington about opening the case, anything from any agency suggesting a political motive, agents' rough notes, the investigative reports still withheld, and — its fourth demand — the facial-recognition dossiers: "all of the Clearview AI reports it generated of protesters and activists during Operation Metro Surge." The one on Sant, the motion says, contains "photos of another man and his family, including the man's pregnant wife and young daughter, pulled from that man's Facebook page and now inextricably linked with Mr. Sant in HSI's internal databases."

Thirty-seven pages, one statute missing

That response — 37 pages, filed 21 August — does not deny any of this. It says the financial records "bear minimal, if any, relevance to the current indictment," that they were handed over "in an abundance of caution," and that the summonses were a "tool used to attempt to discern the source of that funding" for blockades. It defends them under 18 U.S.C. § 3486 and a Congressional Research Service primer reciting the Supreme Court's four-part test for IRS summonses. Across 37 pages it never cites 19 U.S.C. § 1509, the statute printed on the forms it is defending. And it never says "Clearview." Not "facial," not "photo," not "Exhibit 30," the exhibit where the stranger's family sits.

What the government's 37-page response says and never says: "subpoena" appears 15 times and "3486" twice, while "1509" — the statute on the summons forms — "Tariff Act," "Clearview," "facial," "photo" and "Exhibit 30" each appear zero times.

Taken at its strongest, the government's argument is this: administrative subpoenas to corporations need no probable cause; the investigation had a legitimate purpose, because "Defendants raised money to support their blockades" — one bought a trailer for the 23 January blockade, the response notes; the records went to the defense anyway; and the government "does not intend to use it at trial." The primer's first condition for such a subpoena is that "the inquiry is within the authority of the agency." That is the part the response never argues, and the statute's own words make it hard to: §1509 speaks of "the correctness of any entry" — the paperwork filed when goods cross a border — and "the liability of any person for duty, fees and taxes"; no reported decision this desk could locate has tested its broadest clause — compliance with laws "administered by the United States Customs Service" — against an HSI criminal investigation. A union's strike fund is not an entry.

Who is in the room

The three outside groups are not the defendants' natural allies: a libertarian think tank, a campus-speech defender and a legal society built by veterans of Republican administrations. The unions are not in the room at all — as of publication none of the five organizations had commented publicly; SEIU's website was down for maintenance. And the magistrate has history with this U.S. Attorney's office's paperwork: of 36 people charged with assaulting or impeding agents during the surge, MPR News counted 18 cases dropped outright and 11 more ended by non-prosecution agreements, and at a hearing in April Schultz called one of those charging documents a "false affidavit."

Not before any judge

Today's hearing is about discovery — whether the defendants get the communications, notes and remaining facial-recognition reports. Whether a customs summons may reach a union's treasury is not before Judge Schultz, and it has never been before any judge: both times a §1509 summons for a critic's identity was fought in court, DHS withdrew it and no court ruled, and these summonses were never fought because the only parties told about them were asked not to say. The two names blacked out on the Clearing House summons remain unknown. The government asked to postpone today's argument because "only one noticed Counsel for the United States is currently available." Schultz refused on Monday. So at 3:30 the lawyers will argue about paper, while three years of strike pay and retiree dues sit in an HSI folder under a report whose last word on the matter is "continues."

References (1 sources)

References

Amicus brief of the Cato Institute, FIRE and the Society for the Rule of Law and Democracy, Inc. (d/b/a the Society for the Rule of Law), Doc. 241, United States v. Sant, No. 0:26-cr-00115 (D. Minn.), filed 26 Aug 2026 — https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.241.0.pdf — CourtListener RECAP. Retrieved 26 Aug 2026; §II heading and "none of which has been accused of any crime" verified in the PDF text layer (NFKC-normalized). Order granting leave, Doc. 240.
Government's consolidated response, Doc. 227, filed 21 Aug 2026 — https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.227.0_1.pdf — CourtListener RECAP. Term counts ("Clearview" 0, "facial" 0, "photo" 0, "Exhibit 30" 0, "1509" 0, "Tariff" 0) confirmed by three independent hyphen-tolerant NFKC scans of the full text layer (candidate desk, pulse desk, desk lead).
Defense discovery motion, Doc. 212, filed 13 Aug 2026 — https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.0.pdf — CourtListener RECAP. "A Canadian union" and "four days after agents murdered Alex Pretti" are this document's words.
Summons and report exhibits, read at page-image level (text layers are ECF-stamp-only; rendered at 150 dpi): ECF 212-5 (HSI Report of Investigation, approved 30 Apr 2026), 212-6 (Fedwire summons HSI-MS-2026-037088-001, issued 6 Mar 2026), 212-8 (Clearing House summons HSI-MS-2026-037704-001, issued 9 Mar 2026) — same RECAP path pattern, documents 212.5/212.6/212.8.
Docket, D. Minn. No. 0:26-cr-00115 — https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?type=rd&q=docket_id:73489661 — CourtListener API, pulled 26 Aug 2026 (hearing entry: 27 Aug 2026, 3:30 PM, Courtroom 15, before Magistrate Judge Schultz; continuance motion Doc. 226; order denying, Doc. 230, 24 Aug 2026).
19 U.S.C. § 1509 — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/19/1509 — Cornell LII — retrieved 26 Aug 2026.
NSPM-7, "Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence," 90 Fed. Reg. 47225, signing date 25 Sept 2025 — https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json (document 2025-19141) — Federal Register API — retrieved 26 Aug 2026.
DHS Office of Inspector General, Management Alert OIG-18-18, "CBP's Use of Examination and Summons Authority Under 19 U.S.C. § 1509," 16 Nov 2017 — full text as attached to Sen. Wyden's letter below; press release at https://www.oig.dhs.gov/news/press-releases/2017/11162017/dhs-oig-cites-cbp-misuse-summons-power — DHS OIG.
Sen. Ron Wyden, letter to Secretary Kristi Noem on customs summonses issued to Meta, 21 Nov 2025 — https://www.finance.senate.gov/download/20251121-letter-to-dhs-on-customs-summonsespdf&download=1 — Senate Finance Committee. PDF fetched and text extracted; OIG-18-18 quotes verified against this attachment.
Jacob Sullum, "ICE Is Determined To Unmask a Reddit User Whose Only Crime Seems To Be Criticizing ICE" — https://reason.com/2026/04/15/ice-is-determined-to-unmask-a-reddit-user-whose-only-crime-seems-to-be-criticizing-ice/ — Reason — 15 Apr 2026. Re-fetched raw on 27 Aug 2026 (curl, Chrome UA, HTTP 200); the §1509 citation, 12 March motion to quash and withdrawal confirmed in the article text.
Killing of Alex Pretti — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Alex_Pretti — Wikipedia — retrieved 27 Aug 2026 (raw via r.jina.ai); corroborated by ABC News minute-by-minute timeline and CNN, 25 Jan 2026.
Matt Sepic, Jon Collins and Ellie Roth, "Protests follow after 15 Minnesotans charged with anti-ICE conspiracy" — https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/06/16/federal-prosecutors-minnesota-announce-charges-against-immigration-enforcement-opponents — MPR News — 16 June 2026. Direct fetch returns a JS shell with no article body; raw text retrieved via r.jina.ai.
Union and organization press rooms swept 27 Aug 2026 (curl, Chrome UA): cwa-union.org/news and ifpte.org/news (HTTP 200, nothing on the summonses), sunrisemovement.org/press-releases (HTTP 200, archive ends 2021), voicesforracialjustice.org (news index 404; homepage carries nothing), seiu.org (down for server maintenance).

Further Discussion

A power that survives by surrender

The customs summons has never lost in court for the same reason a card cheat never loses a hand he folds. Look at what happens every time someone actually fights one. March 2017: Customs and Border Protection serves Twitter with a summons under 19 U.S.C. § 1509 demanding everything about @ALT_USCIS, an anonymous account needling the administration's immigration policy. Twitter sues on 6 April. CBP withdraws the summons the next day — before any judge can say a word about whether a customs-audit statute reaches an anonymous critic's identity. The department's own Inspector General later writes that CBP "may have exceeded the scope of its authority." May have. Nobody ever has to find out, because the question left the courthouse with the summons. March 2026: ICE serves Reddit a § 1509 summons for the identity of a user whose offense was criticizing an agent involved in a fatal shooting. The user moves to quash. ICE withdraws. Again the power retreats at the exact moment a ruling becomes possible, and again it survives intact, ready for reuse. Then Minneapolis, where the trick is perfected. The summonses to Fedwire and The Clearing House — for three years of union wire records — carried a line printed on the form itself: "You are requested not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time." The only parties in a position to fight were the payment systems, and they were the ones asked to stay quiet. So for the first time in this pattern, nobody sued, nobody moved to quash, and the records simply flowed. Strike pay, retiree dues, pension wires — into an HSI folder, under a report that ends with the word "continues." Put the three together and the shape is unmistakable. This is not a legal authority that keeps winning; it is a legal authority that has never once been tested, because the government folds whenever a court might look and deals again to someone who cannot object. Withdrawal is not restraint. It is maintenance — the way you keep a questionable power usable is to make sure it never acquires a losing precedent. The unions' records were not obtained because the summons power is lawful. They were obtained because its lawfulness is a question the government has spent nine years making sure no judge gets to answer.

Infographic description

This infographic presents “A power that survives by surrender.” Text shown in the graphic, in reading order: HOT TAKE 1 · NOTES ON INTERNET PRIVACY · 2026-08-27 · 2026-08-27-01 · https://ur.io · TWO § 1509 SUMMONSES · FEDWIRE AND THE CLEARING HOUSE · THREE YEARS OF UNION WIRE RECORDS · A POWER THAT SURVIVES · BY SURRENDER. · TIMES FOUGHT IN COURT · 2 · Twitter 2017 · Reddit 2026 — both withdrawn · RULINGS ON ITS REACH · 0 · in nine years — no judge has ever answered · WHEN NOBODY COULD FIGHT · 3 YRS · of union wire records simply flowed · MAR 2017 · CBP to Twitter: unmask @ALT_USCIS · 6 APR 2017 · Twitter sues — withdrawn the next day, no ruling · MAR 2026 · Reddit user moves to quash — ICE withdraws, no ruling · MAR 2026 · Fedwire and The Clearing House, told to stay quiet — records flow · WITHDRAWAL IS NOT RESTRAINT — IT IS MAINTENANCE · the way you keep a questionable power usable is to make sure it never acquires a losing precedent · “You are requested not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time.” · — printed on both summons forms · Fedwire, 6 March 2026 · The Clearing House, 9 March 2026 · Source: ECF 212, 212-5, 212-6, 212-8, United States v. Sant, No. 0:26-cr-00115 (D. Minn.); DHS OIG-18-18 (2017); Reason, 15 Apr 2026. · URnetwork · https://ur.io · 2026-08-27

Administrative subpoenas are boring, and lawful

Here is the case a competent government lawyer makes, without a single dishonest move. Start with the settled part. Administrative subpoenas to third-party corporations require no probable cause; agencies issue them by the thousand, and courts enforce them on a reasonableness standard. Under *United States v. Miller*, decided in 1976, a bank's customer has no Fourth Amendment interest in the bank's own records of his transactions. Congress's answer to *Miller* was the Right to Financial Privacy Act — a statute with law-enforcement exceptions that the defense motion does not claim were violated. The summonses went to Fedwire and The Clearing House, not to the unions; the recipients' obligations, not the unions' rights, are what the law tests. Next, purpose. The investigation had one, and the response documents it: defendants raised money to support their blockades — one bought a trailer, another rented a 10-foot U-Haul — and the summonses were a tool to discern the source of that funding. That is a legitimate object of a financial investigation into a charged conspiracy. And the endgame is the opposite of a cover-up: the records were produced to the defense "in an abundance of caution," with a representation that they will not be used at trial. The discovery motion is thus a demand for paper about records that carry, in the government's phrase, "minimal, if any, relevance" to the indictment. Finally, the statute itself. Section 1509's fourth clause reaches records relevant to "insuring compliance with the laws … administered by the United States Customs Service." HSI is the agency Congress built atop legacy customs authorities, and it investigates cross-border movement of funds — the Clearing House summons itself reached a Toronto bank account. No reported decision holds that reading wrong. Now the honest concession, which cuts both ways. Nothing holds that reading right, either — no reported decision the desk could find tests the fourth clause against an HSI criminal investigation, and neither has the government offered one; its own brief never cites § 1509 at all. So the claim available to critics is "untested," not "false." But untested runs in the government's favor too. If a court someday adopts the broad reading, then everything in Minneapolis — the secrecy request, the strike funds, the three-year sweep — was ugly, and lawful. Boring, even. Which is exactly what the government's lawyer will say at 3:30.

Infographic description

This infographic presents “Administrative subpoenas are boring, and lawful.” Text shown in the graphic, in reading order: HOT TAKE 2 · NOTES ON INTERNET PRIVACY · 2026-08-27 · 2026-08-27-01 · https://ur.io · THE GOVERNMENT'S BEST CASE, MADE WITHOUT A SINGLE DISHONEST MOVE — UNITED STATES v. SANT (D. MINN.) · ADMINISTRATIVE SUBPOENAS ARE · BORING, AND LAWFUL. · SETTLED LAW SINCE · 1976 · Miller: no Fourth Amendment interest in bank records · PROBABLE CAUSE REQUIRED · NONE · issued by the thousand, enforced on reasonableness · REPORTED DECISIONS · 0 · on § 1509's fourth clause vs an HSI case — either way · THE LAWYER'S LEDGER · The summonses went to Fedwire and The Clearing House — the recipients' obligations, not the unions' rights, are what the law tests. · Purpose, documented: discern the source of blockade funding — a trailer, a 10-foot U-Haul. · Produced to the defense “in an abundance of caution” — with a representation they will not be used at trial. · THE HONEST CONCESSION · No reported decision holds that § 1509's fourth clause reaches an HSI criminal investigation. · No reported decision holds that it doesn't — and the government's own brief never cites § 1509 at all. · The claim available to critics is “untested,” not “false” — and untested runs in the government's favor too. · IF THE BROAD READING WINS, MINNEAPOLIS WAS UGLY — AND LAWFUL. BORING, EVEN. · which is exactly what the government's lawyer will say at 3:30 · Source: Gov't response, Doc. 227, United States v. Sant, No. 0:26-cr-00115 (D. Minn.); United States v. Miller (1976); 19 U.S.C. § 1509. · URnetwork · https://ur.io · 2026-08-27

Comics

Editorial meme: A power that survives by surrender. THE COMMAND THAT NEVER LOSES — HSI Form 3115 · authority: “section 509, Tariff Act of 1930” · 19 U.S.C. § 1509 — #1A power that survives by surrender

Editorial meme: Administrative subpoenas are boring, and lawful. CHANGES REQUESTED — Doc. 227 · the government's consolidated response · 37 pages — Defend the summonses #227 — #2Administrative subpoenas are boring, and lawful