Federal Judge Rejects Oregon Attorney General Ban on Federal Officers Making Arrest of Portland Anarchists

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Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum requested a restraining order against federal officers making arrests of Portland protesters. A federal judge yesterday, in a sharp setback to local Democrats’ legal strategies, denied that request.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman said Rosenblum failed to provide sufficient evidence that such arrests were widespread or were part of broader federal policy. Because Oregon couldn’t establish pattern or policy, it lacked the legal standing to seek a halt to the incidents, Mosman ruled.

“The state has alleged that the purportedly illegal seizures by defendants have caused an injury to its citizens’ rights to speech and assembly,” Mosman wrote in his decision. “In other words, the state must show that the illegal seizures […] will occur again in the future. The state could try to show, for example, that all of defendants’ seizures are illegal, or that they are under orders to fail to identify themselves or to make random arrests without probable cause.”

“The state has shown none of this,” he added. “It has presented no evidence of any official orders or policies and has presented no evidence that these allegedly illegal seizures are a widespread practice. Despite the broad language in the complaint, Oregon has shown—at most—that this type of seizure has happened twice.”
“In a typical case alleging these types of constitutional harms, the aggrieved individual would sue on his own behalf,” he wrote. “Here, however, the state of Oregon—by way of Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum—has brought a suit alleging these same kinds of constitutional claims on a theory that they harm the state’s citizenry writ large.”
“The state has presented just one example of an arrest without probable cause and one example of an unreasonable seizure,” he continued. “That is the sum total of the evidence before me.”
Rosenblum expressed disappointment in the decision.

“While I respect Judge Mosman,” she wrote in a statement, “I would ask this question: If the state of Oregon does not have standing to prevent this unconstitutional conduct by unidentified federal agents running roughshod over her citizens, who does? Individuals mistreated by these federal agents can sue for damages, but they can’t get a judge to restrain this unlawful conduct more generally. Today’s ruling suggests that there may be no recourse on behalf of our state, and if so that is extremely troubling.”

Portland has been the scene of ongoing civil unrest for the last two months. Rioters aligned with the anarchist group ANTIFA have attacked federal buildings as well as officers during the riots.

The Trump administration sent federal law enforcement officers to protect government property and quell the unrest, that local officials have seemingly been unwilling or unable to do.

Photo by Andy Ngo

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