Attorney General Charity Clark has joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general in submitting an amicus brief in the case Los Angeles Press Club, et al. v. Kristi Noem, et al., currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The brief supports journalists and protesters who are challenging actions taken by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during protests in Los Angeles last summer.
The protests were held in response to recent immigration raids conducted by federal authorities. According to the filing, federal agents used tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and other weapons “indiscriminately and with surprising savagery,” resulting in injuries to peaceful protesters, legal observers, and journalists.
A group that includes the Los Angeles Press Club, NewsGuild – Communications Workers of America, three journalists, two individual protesters, and a legal observer filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California seeking to prevent DHS from using such crowd control measures at demonstrations opposing immigration enforcement actions. The plaintiffs argued that these tactics not only put civilians at unnecessary risk but also violate First Amendment rights and established court rulings on law enforcement conduct at protests.
The district court granted a preliminary injunction restricting DHS’s use of certain crowd control methods at these events. That decision is now under appeal at the Ninth Circuit.
In their amicus brief, Attorney General Clark and her counterparts urge the appellate court to uphold the lower court’s order. They contend that “the tactics employed by these federal agents, including their inappropriate use of dangerous crowd control weapons, infringed on the First Amendment rights of protesters and the media, while also failing to accomplish their purported goal of lessening public unrest.”
Other states joining Vermont in this action include California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island.
A copy of the brief can be found on Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark’s website.
