Appeals court pauses limits on federal agents’ tear gas use at Portland ICE protests
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit temporarily paused a pair of lower-court orders that limited federal agents’ use of tear gas and other crowd-control munitions near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, the court said. The panel granted the Trump administration’s request for temporary administrative stays in a 2-1 ruling, the court said.
The Ninth Circuit panel said oral arguments in the two consolidated cases are scheduled for April 7, the court said.
The lawsuits were filed after demonstrations began in June, the complaints say. One case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists. The other was filed by residents of an affordable housing complex across the street from the ICE building. The complaints allege federal agents’ use of chemical and projectile munitions violated the plaintiffs’ rights, citing incidents involving a demonstrator who wears a chicken costume, a married couple in their 80s and two freelance journalists, the filings say.
Federal judges in Portland had issued preliminary injunctions earlier this month limiting agents’ use of tear gas, pepper spray and other chemical munitions unless someone posed an imminent threat of physical harm. The judges ordered agents not to fire munitions at the head, neck or torso unless the officer was legally justified in using deadly force, and to avoid indiscriminate use of pepper spray that would affect bystanders. The rulings said agents should target only those engaging in violent unlawful conduct or actively resisting arrest, noting that trespassing, refusing to move and refusing to obey an order to disperse are acts of passive resistance.
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon wrote on March 9 in the ACLU case that plaintiffs had submitted numerous videos that “unambiguously show DHS officers spraying OC Spray directly into the faces of peaceful and nonviolent protesters engaged in, at most, passive resistance and discharging tear gas and firing pepper-ball munitions into crowds of peaceful and nonviolent protestors.” The Department of Homeland Security said agents have “followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property.” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson earlier called on ICE to leave the city and criticized federal officers’ use of pepper balls, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets, saying federal forces had “deployed heavy waves of chemical munitions” against a largely peaceful protest, the mayor said in a statement.
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