We knew, from the moment news broke that an agitator had been fatally shot by an ICE agent during an early January operation in south Minneapolis, that the game had changed. It made no difference that Renee Good had gone to such extraordinary lengths to impede a federal law enforcement action as blocking ICE vehicles, sounding her horn for minutes on end, dancing, and finally accelerating her car toward an agent.
In order to stoke nationwide outrage, the Left immediately seized upon Good’s death as a cold-blooded murder. The federal government had killed an innocent woman, they claimed.
Incendiary remarks from then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that included calling Good a domestic terrorist before an investigation had even begun only exacerbated the situation.
AOC: This has now become what we feared most about ICE for a long time—that it would be used as an anti-civilian force with no accountability. At the end of the day, what we saw today was a murder, and murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted. pic.twitter.com/9J0kvMEZGw
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 8, 2026
That’s why it comes as no surprise that Good’s family filed two lawsuits Thursday: one targeting the U.S. government and another aimed at individual Trump administration officials, Palantir Technologies Inc., and even journalists Nick Shirley and Christopher Rufo.
The second lawsuit states:
President Trump and Defendants Miller, Noem, Lewandowski, Lyons, Homan, Bovino, Ross, and the John Doe Federal Agents, together with co-conspirators Shirley, Rufo, Bergquam, Palantir Technologies Inc., and Clearview AI, Inc., entered into and carried out (along with countless other public and private conspirators) an agreement to conduct and escalate Operation Metro Surge, whose object was to deprive people of Somali descent and origin and Hispanic people in Minnesota of the equal protection of the laws. As a means to achieve the conspiracy’s object, the conspirators agreed to and worked to suppress, by exclusive-access arrangements, intimidation, arrest, and force, the observation, documentation, warning, and community defense of the targeted classes by their neighbors and allies.
Or maybe the government was simply enforcing U.S. immigration law and trying to undo some of the grave damage inflicted on the country by the previous administration, which had rolled out a welcome mat for unvetted illegal aliens.
The timing of the lawsuits — just one month ahead of the midterms — is equally predictable.
According to Fox 9:
Good’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit and an excessive force lawsuit related to her death on Jan. 7, 2026.
One is a civil rights lawsuit alleging the government violated Good’s constitutional rights when an agent shot and killed her.
The other invokes the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, claiming the Trump Administration designed Operation Metro Surge in a way that encouraged those constitutional violations.
Good’s wife, Becca Good, spoke at a news conference announcing the lawsuits. She said that Good “was the love of my life” and that she was there because, “last January, the whole world had to watch as our entire universe was destroyed.”
Family members said Good “brought light wherever she went.” Please.
But it was remarks from Good’s brother, Brent Ganger, that pointed to the political nature of the legal action and revealed the family’s real agenda: “I deeply regret that it took the death of Renee to wake me up to the fact that no one in this country is untouchable. I’m sure many people feel as though they are safe. My family had the unfortunate privilege of learning the hard way.”
One of the family’s attorneys, Ben Berkman, offered more clarity: “Renee’s death was the predictable result of a coordinated campaign by senior administration officials, a campaign to target Somali and Hispanic Minnesotans and to silence anyone who dared to raise their voice.”
A second family attorney, Antonio Romanucci, said, “Our government has become a grave and mortal threat to its own citizens.”
Fox 9 reported that the family “share[s] the goal of standing up for Renee by standing up for the Constitution.” Given Good’s extreme actions on that fateful morning, I find that extraordinarily ironic.
The defendants include Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fired the fatal shots, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, border czar Tom Homan, and the previously mentioned journalists. Unbelievably, the lawsuit accuses them of participating in a racist conspiracy against Hispanics and Somalis.
Rufo rightly called the legal action “bonkers” in a post on X. He wrote: “The family of Rene[e] Good has filed a lawsuit accusing me of participating in a ‘conspiracy’ with President Trump, Nick Shirley, and Palantir to violate the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. It provides no evidence for that conspiracy.”
This is bonkers. The family of Rene Good has filed a lawsuit accusing me of participating in a “conspiracy” with President Trump, Nick Shirley, and Palantir to violate the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. It provides no evidence for that conspiracy. Reads like a left-wing QAnon fantasy. pic.twitter.com/2c6wDhApOp
— Christopher Rufo (@christopherrufo) October 1, 2026
To many of us, these lawsuits and particularly their timing, smack of both politics and greed. Good’s family has every right to seek answers and pursue its claims in court. But grief does not establish a conspiracy, and sweeping accusations against administration officials, technology companies, and journalists require evidence. The family must prove its allegations. Neither the tragedy of Good’s death nor the political outrage surrounding it can substitute for that proof.
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