Federal Judge Blocks Florida Protest Law Challenged by Activists

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a Florida law aimed at clamping down on the massive demonstrations seen nationwide after the death of George Floyd last year.

Advocacy groups that challenged the law clearly showed their members “have engaged in self-censoring for fear of the challenged statute’s enforcement against them,” Chief Judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida said in an order granting a preliminary injunction.

The law’s “new definition of ‘riot’ both fails to put Floridians of ordinary intelligence on notice of what acts it criminalizes and encourages arbitrary and discriminatory ...