Appeals court declines to reimpose restrictions on agents at Minnesota protests

The Hill -  A federal appeals court on Monday declined to reimpose restrictions on federal agents at protests in Minnesota, refusing the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) plea to do so following this weekend’s fatal shooting. 

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel sided with the Trump administration, ruling that limits imposed by a judge earlier this month were too broad and vague. 

“A wrong call could end in contempt, yet there is little in the order that constrains the district court’s power to impose it,” the panel wrote in its unsigned opinion. 

The ruling lasts until the 8th Circuit resolves the administration’s appeal in normal course, which will be expedited. 

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, an appointee of former President Biden, had blocked federal personnel responding to protests in Minnesota from retaliating against peaceful demonstrators or using pepper spray and “similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools” against them. 

She issued the ruling after a group of residents sued on Dec. 17, claiming that officers were violating the First Amendment at protests that erupted across the Twin Cities as federal resources arrived.