Politics

A lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Press Club and other plaintiffs last year claimed “DHS agents have engaged in a pattern, policy, and practice of unnecessarily and indiscriminately assaulting, teargassing, pepper-spraying, and shooting protesters exercising their rights to assemble and to voice their disagreement with DHS, reporters covering these events, and legal observers seeking to document DHS’s conduct.”

The federal government denied the allegations, arguing the use of less-lethal devices by agents and officers was “reasonable, lawful, and justified under federal laws and regulations.”

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in September that limited how such munitions could be used. The government appealed, and last week an appeals court found that while there was an “avalanche of evidence” suggesting federal agents engaged in the “widespread practice of violating the First Amendment rights of journalists, legal observers, and protestors,” the preliminary injunction was “overbroad,” remanding the issue back to district court for further proceedings.