The flames are getting higher.

The former CNN anchor Don Lemon and three other people have been arrested on charges that they violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., this month, lawyers and Justice Department officials said on Friday, reviving a case that was rejected last week by a magistrate judge.

The arrests of Mr. Lemon, a second journalist and two protesters came a little more than a week after three other demonstrators who took part in the action at the Cities Church on Jan. 18 were taken into custody. The prosecution is likely to face pushback from defense lawyers on First Amendment grounds, given that political protest sits at the center of the charges and that Mr. Lemon and the other journalist, Georgia Fort, have said they entered the church to cover a demonstration against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the area.

In other words Trump is actively tearing up the Bill of Rights.

The protesters interrupted a service at the church, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor, and chanted “ICE out.” Afterward, the Justice Department drafted a criminal complaint to charge a total of eight people, including Mr. Lemon, over of the episode, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.

But the federal magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people — Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen and William Kelly. He refused to sign arrest warrants for Mr. Lemon and the others, citing insufficient evidence. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the chief judge in Federal District Court in Minneapolis to issue the additional warrants, only to be denied.

Because reporting on a protest is not the same thing as being part of the protest. It’s not a massively subtle distinction. It remains a distinction even if the reporters are in sympathy with the protesters. It is in fact very often the case that reporters are in sympathy with the people or cause they are reporting on. Labor reporters report on strikes, and they may be in sympathy with the strikes they report on; they are still reporters and protected by the First Amendment.

The arrests come as the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis is in deep turmoil. At a tense meeting earlier this week, a number of prosecutors challenged the head of the office about the administration’s decision not to pursue investigations of the shootings by federal agents, according to people familiar with the internal discussions. At least a half dozen prosecutors have resigned, and more departures are expected.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has called on other federal prosecutors’ offices in the Midwest to send temporary reinforcements to help investigate and prosecute cases.

It’s all getting much too Weimar.