With massive “No Kings” demonstrations planned across Los Angeles this weekend, the Los Angeles Police Department is asking a federal judge to lift a court order that restricts its use of force against journalists. The emergency motion, filed Wednesday by City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office and an outside law firm hired by the city, argues that the injunction “creates undefined and operationally impracticable standards” and could expose officers to contempt for what they call “good-faith actions taken to protect the public.”
The motion seeks to suspend an injunction issued in September by U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera after the Los Angeles Press Club and investigative outlet Status Coup sued the city for repeated assaults on journalists covering protests. Vera’s order barred the LAPD from using less-lethal munitions, tear gas, and other crowd control weapons against reporters and nonviolent demonstrators. He also prohibited police from detaining or arresting journalists for failing to disperse and required the department to prove that every officer assigned to protest duty had read and acknowledged the injunction before deployment.
In his ruling, Vera called the LAPD’s behavior “the latest chapter in a long and unfortunate saga” of unlawful force against the media. He cited at least 35 recent incidents, including officers firing flash-bangs and projectiles at reporters and protesters during anti-ICE demonstrations in June. The injunction also compelled the department to allow detained journalists to promptly contact a captain or commanding officer and forbade the targeting of members of the press wearing visible credentials.
The LAPD’s new motion, however, claims that the injunction is too broad, arguing that it “extends protections to every journalist in the city” rather than only to those affiliated with the Los Angeles Press Club or Status Coup. The filing also insists that officers cannot always distinguish legitimate reporters from protesters and contends that the court’s order leaves them vulnerable in fast-moving situations.
Press advocates see the filing as a direct attempt to gut essential protections ahead of one of the city’s largest protest weekends of the year. Adam Rose, press rights chair for the Los Angeles Press Club, criticized Mayor Karen Bass and the LAPD for trying to undo the injunction rather than comply with it. “Karen Bass is quick to run to the media to criticize Trump for violating court orders, but when the media is assaulted by her own LAPD, she never says a word,” Rose said in a statement to LAist. “Instead of holding the department accountable, the city is spending even more money to hire an outside law firm so they can effectively beg a judge for permission to keep assaulting journalists for just doing their job.”
The “No Kings” protests, with roughly 80 separate demonstrations planned across the region, are expected to draw thousands of participants opposing what organizers call “authoritarian power grabs” by the Trump administration. The city’s emergency filing, coming just days before the rallies, has intensified fears that LAPD could again use force to control crowds, and that journalists documenting the events may be at risk.
Civil rights attorneys warn that suspending the injunction would effectively allow LAPD to revert to practices that have already been deemed unconstitutional. “This is exactly what we feared,” said one Los Angeles journalist familiar with the case. “They’re trying to take off the leash just before a major protest.” The court has not yet ruled on the LAPD’s emergency request.