LOS ANGELES — In a landmark victory for press freedom and protest rights, a federal district court has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)— which includes ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) — from assaulting or retaliating against journalists, legal observers and protesters in Southern California, according to a press release from the ACLU of Southern California.
Judge Hernán Vera of the Central District Court of California ruled Wednesday that DHS agents repeatedly violated the First Amendment by targeting people documenting and protesting violent immigration raids. In his 45-page opinion, Vera wrote that “the record includes detailed and credible declarations from nearly 50 journalists, legal observers, and protesters,” showing a pattern of retaliation for exercising their constitutional rights. “[U]nder the guise of protecting the public, federal agents have endangered large numbers of peaceful protestors, legal observers, and journalists — as well as the public that relies on them to hold their government accountable,” he stated. “The First Amendment demands better.”
“This decision is a powerful reminder that journalists must be protected, not met with violence,” said Ryanne Mena, a journalist and plaintiff in the case, in the ACLU’s release. “By granting this relief, the court has affirmed the journalistic duty to our communities and the essential role of a free press.”
Adrienna Wong, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said the ruling vindicates the rights of people who risked their safety to document federal crackdowns. “Since the federal government began its violent, chaotic invasion of Southern California, our communities have risen together to bear witness and to speak out for their neighbors and loved ones,” Wong said. “This ruling affirms their constitutional rights to do just that.”
The preliminary injunction applies across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Among other provisions, the court order bars DHS agents from dispersing, threatening or assaulting the press or legal observers unless they have probable cause to believe a crime unrelated to failing to obey a dispersal order has been committed. It also prohibits agents from using chemical, projectile or auditory weapons on journalists, legal observers or protesters who pose no imminent threat, and bans firing tear gas or other projectiles at people’s heads, necks, groins, spines or other sensitive areas unless they pose an immediate threat of death or serious injury.
The lawsuit, filed in June by the Los Angeles Press Club, NewsGuild-CWA, three journalists, two protesters and a legal observer, alleges that DHS carried out a campaign of violence against those documenting or opposing immigration raids. Court documents detail how federal agents fired tear gas grenades, shot people in the head and body with projectiles, smashed the hands of people recording events, and brandished guns at people engaged in lawful First Amendment activities — causing burns, hematomas, wounds, concussions, memory lapses and brain contusions.
“I’ve spent countless hours compiling evidence of police misconduct toward journalists in Los Angeles. The attacks this summer have been relentless,” said Adam Rose, press rights chair of the Los Angeles Press Club, in the release. “It was a relief to hear Judge Vera acknowledge a ‘mountain of evidence’ as we sat in his courtroom last month. This decision affirms our right to be free from violence while doing our jobs.”
Matthew Borden, a partner at BraunHagey & Borden LLP and co-counsel in the case, warned that allowing the government to attack the press and protesters would erode democracy itself. “The rights to protest and report are critical to our constitutional democracy,” Borden said. “If the government can suppress them with violence, the government is the only one controlling the messages to our nation. That is the hallmark of a totalitarian state and the very evil the First Amendment was designed to protect against.”
“Journalists are the workers who shine a light on our democracy and hold power to account,” added Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA. “This order makes clear they have a right to do their jobs safely to bring us the news we deserve without government interference.”
The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, BraunHagey & Borden LLP, the Law Office of Carol A. Sobel, the Law Office of Peter Bibring, and Schonbrun, Seplow, Harris, Hoffman & Zeldes LLP.
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Judge Hernán Vera is a Biden appointee.