Wednesday’s hearing focused on the actions of more than 100 federal agents who responded to protests outside the city’s Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, which has been the target of more than 50 nights of demonstrations against racial injustice after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
The motion for a temporary restraining order asks United States District Court Judge Michael Mosman to command agents from the US Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, The Federal Service of Protection and the US Marshals Service To immediately detain protesters without probable cause, to identify themselves and their agency before arresting someone, and explain why an arrest is taking place.
During the hearing, conducted by videoconference due to the coronavirus pandemic, the state acknowledged during the hearing that federal agents have the right to defend the court, which is federal property, but argued that they had exceeded that role.
Rosenblum, the state attorney general, said she was asking the court to “declare that it is not acceptable for federal officials to use unconstitutional police-type acts to detain Oregon citizens without cause.”
David Morrell, a lawyer for the United States government, called the motion “extraordinary” and told the court that it was based solely on “some threadbare statements” from witnesses and a video from Twitter.
“It is important to underline what is at stake here. The Hatfield court did not harm itself, “he said, calling the protests” dangerous and volatile. “
It is unclear when Mosman will rule, but he challenged the state on whether he had adequate capacity to apply for the restraining order on behalf of all Oregonians. The judge noted that past legal decisions have required a state to set a very high bar – “quasi-sovereign interest” – to successfully sue the United States government.
Oregon attorneys argued that they had met that bar because the actions of federal agents could erode the confidence of Oregonians in all law enforcement, including state and municipal officials.
But Morrell, the US government’s attorney, questioned that, saying that successful lawsuits generally involved problems that affected many people, not “highly individual interests” like arrests.
The lawsuit is one of several filed by police response to the Portland protests. On Thursday, a judge will hear the arguments in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of journalists and legal observers who say they were attacked and attacked by police while documenting protests. A freelance photographer covering the protests by The Associated Press filed an affidavit that he was beaten with batons, chemical irritants, and beaten with rubber bullets.
US Judge Michael Simon previously ruled that journalists and legal observers are exempt from Portland police orders that require protesters to disperse once an area has been declared an illegal assembly. Federal attorneys say in court documents that journalists should leave when ordered to do so.
The Trump administration is also facing another lawsuit, accusing federal agents of violating the Tenth Amendment rights of protesters by participating in designated police activities for local and state governments.
Before Wednesday’s hearing, a fence was erected around Portland federal court, where protesters and federal agents had clashed again overnight, according to police. Protesters repeatedly tried to break into court and set fire to around it, and federal agents pushed them back with tear gas and stun grenades, police said.
Far from stopping the riots in Portland, the presence of federal agents on the streets of the progressive city has recently energized the nightly protests. The crowds had numbered fewer than 100, but increased to more than 1,000 over the weekend, as outrage at the use of federal forces seemed to unite Portland residents.
More broadly, the use of federal agents against the wishes of state and local officials, and the threat that it could be done elsewhere, was deepening the country’s already considerable political divisions and potentially creating a constitutional crisis months before presidential elections. The standoff could escalate if Trump sends federal agents elsewhere, as he says he plans to do, including Chicago.
The mayors of Chicago, Portland and 13 other Democrat-led cities called the deployment unconstitutional and alleged it was being carried out for political purposes in a letter to Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf.
“The president and his administration continually attack local leaders and amplify false and divisive rhetoric solely for campaign fodder,” the mayors wrote.
Federal authorities, however, have defended their response, saying that officials in Oregon had been unwilling to work with them to stop vandalism against the United States court and violence against federal officials.
Wolf said at a press conference Tuesday in Washington that officers have been assaulted with lasers, bats, fireworks, bottles and other weapons. While he said that federal agencies have made 43 arrests since July 4, he questioned whether they were made by unidentified agents and noted that they have the word “police” on their uniforms.
Among the protesters this week was Maureen Healy, who joined a march on Monday with a family member, as protesters sang songs, chanted the names of lost black lives, and maintained moments of silence.
Just after midnight, he saw a line of authorities wearing camouflage and dark suits emerge and advance over the crowd. The crowd withdrew and Healy said she heard knocks, saw smoke, and a projectile hit her when she turned around. She went to the hospital with a black eye, cut on her face and a possible concussion.
“This is my house. I was protesting peacefully, why did the federal troops shoot me in the head? Asked Healy, 52, who chairs the Department of History at Lewis & Clark College.
