LAPD Denied Lift of Press Force Ban for ‘No Kings’ Rallies (1)

A judge refused to lift his block barring Los Angeles police from targeting journalists with excessive force, after the city filed an emergency request for a pause ahead of Saturday’s “No Kings” protests.

“Defendants have not shown any exigency not of their own creation and therefore have not shown an entitlement to extraordinary relief,” US District Judge Hernan D. Vera said in a Friday order.

The city waited several weeks after Vera’s preliminary injunction in the US District Court for the Central District of California to file its ex parte application for a stay, and plans for the nationwide anti-Trump protests have been well known for ten days, he said.

Vera said an order on the merits of the stay request would follow by Oct. 24. The city—also under pressure from its councilmembers—subsequently withdrew its application.

The city had argued the order “imposes ambiguous mandates that create serious operational uncertainty and a substantial risk of contempt for good-faith conduct to preserve public safety,” and said it’s likely to win its pending appeal.

The requirement to have a command-level press liaison at every protest is unworkable because the department doesn’t have the resources to cover every event, it said.

Lawyers for the press organizations said Vera should deny the request as an improper ex parte motion. They said Vera’s press liaison requirement doesn’t go far beyond existing California law, which already requires journalists be allowed to immediately contact a supervisory officer if they believe they were wrongly detained.

Press sued over LAPD officers striking them with rubber bullets, charging them with horses, and otherwise obstructing their coverage of anti-deportation protests that escalated in June. Vera in July issued a temporary restraining order against LAPD. A month later, journalists said in court filings that police were beating them with batons and arresting them as they held up press badges.

Lawyers for the police denied they were intentionally targeting journalists. They say reporters positioned within groups of protesters were caught in the crossfire when police deployed crowd control devices.

Vera in September issued a preliminary injunction blocking LA police from targeting journalists who cover protests with excessive physical force.

The LA City Council voted unanimously Friday to direct City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto to withdraw the motion, saying it was done without their consultation. They cited $68 million in liability costs tied to LAPD’s use of force against protesters and journalists from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.

“Since protests of the Federal Government’s immigration enforcement activities in the City grew in June 2025, at least 60 claims have been made against the LAPD by protestors and journalists for use of force,” the motion said. “Lifting this injunction does not further the City’s mission of keeping Angelenos safe while putting the City’s stressed finances in further jeopardy by creating additional liability and claims against the City.”

Councilmembers also voted to request that Feldstein Soto’s office report in 30 days on litigation it has initiated since July 1, 2024 without directions from the Council or LA Mayor Karen Bass (D).

The case is Los Angeles Press Club v. City of Los Angeles, C.D. Cal., No. 2:25-cv-05423, 10/17/25.