LOS ANGELES (CN) — A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday rejected a bid by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to stay a preliminary injunction barring federal law enforcement from using excessive and indiscriminate force against journalists covering protests in Southern California.
In an unsigned order, the three-judge panel largely denied DHS’s request to stay the injunction — issued in September by U.S. District Judge Hernán Vera in Los Angeles — while the government’s appeal is resolved. The panel has scheduled a hearing next month on the merits of the appeal.
The appellate panel, however, trimmed Vera’s injunction in so far as it applied to protesters in general who aren’t part of the lawsuit in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent reservations about such wide-ranging court orders.
