Oregon
Lawsuit alleging excessive force against 2020 protesters has been settled
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A lawsuit alleging that law enforcement agents sent by President Donald Trump to protect a federal courthouse in 2020 used excessive force against racial justice protesters has been settled, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon said Tuesday.
The settlement requires the federal government to compensate the individuals who filed the lawsuit for the injuries that federal law enforcement caused them, in exchange for the individuals’ agreement to dismiss the lawsuit, according to a news release from the ACLU. No information was released about specific compensation amounts.
The plaintiffs included three military veterans, a college professor, several Black Lives Matter activists and a man who alleges that unidentified agents snatched him off a street for no reason blocks from the federal courthouse.
“We are proud to have represented our courageous clients,” ACLU of Oregon’s legal director, Kelly Simon, said in the news release. “They suffered serious injuries because of federal law enforcement’s unlawful, aggressive actions, and it is just and fair that they are being compensated.”
Thousands of protesters in Portland took to the streets for months in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, part of a wave of nationwide protests. They at times clashed with police, and militarized federal agents were sent to the city to quell the demonstrations.
The lawsuit alleged that federal agents in Portland exceeded the limits of their authority, making illegal arrests and using tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and other tactics to squelch the protests. Almost all of the plaintiffs alleged physical injuries and some were treated at hospitals, the lawsuit said.
A video of plaintiff and Navy veteran Christopher David’s encounter with U.S. agents outside the Portland courthouse circulated widely on social media. It showed one agent hitting David with a baton and another dousing him in the face with pepper spray. David suffered two broken bones in his hand.
The lawsuit also alleged that the then-acting director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, did not have the authority to send more than 100 agents to Portland because he was improperly appointed. Wolf abruptly resigned from the post in 2021, saying he was compelled to leave by “recent events,” including court rulings that found he could not legally hold the position.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security directed a request for comment about the settlement on Tuesday to the Department of Justice, which didn’t respond.
A federal investigative report later found that the militarized federal agents didn’t have the proper training or equipment and there was no plan for operating without the help of local police.
Local police arrested hundreds of people over the three months of protest and federal agents arrested nearly 100 people at the height of the demonstrations.
New York
Roller derby league loses bid to temporarily block ban on trans athletes
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York roller derby league has lost its bid to temporarily block a local ban on transgender female athletes.
Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Bruce Cozzens on Tuesday denied a request by the Long Island Roller Rebels to prevent Nassau County from enforcing its ban while its lawsuit is considered by the court.
In July, local lawmakers in the suburban county east of New York City banned transgender women and girls from playing on female sports teams at the county’s roughly 100 parks and recreational facilities.
The judge determined the new law does not exclude transgender women and girls from public facilities based on their gender identities as they can still play in coed sports leagues. He said allowing transgender women to play in female sports creates additional risk of injury and potential liability for the local government.
“There can be no question (even without discovery) that a biological male regardless of transitioning would be possessed of greater athleticism and speed, strength, muscle mass, stronger hearts and greater bone density,” Cozzens wrote. “The goal of the local law is to provide a safe environment for individuals who are born female to play.”
The roller derby league and the New York Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit on the league’s behalf, said they were disappointed by the ruling and intend to appeal it while their litigation proceeds.
Gabriella Larios, a staff attorney for the NYCLU, called the judge’s ruling an “outlier” that is inconsistent with other court decisions, and state laws protecting human rights and civil rights.
“At a time of rising anti-LGBTQ+ hate and violence across the country, keeping this ban intact is not only cruel, but it is also dangerous,” added Amanda “Curly Fry” Urena, president of the Roller Rebels. “We hope that New York’s courts will ultimately strike down this unlawful ban and acknowledge it for what it is — transphobic and unjust.”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, in a statement, applauded the decision and called it “common sense.”
The Republican had initially imposed the ban through an executive order last February, but that was struck down by the court after the roller derby league and NYCLU challenged it.
The county’s Republican-controlled Legislature then passed a local law to enshrine the ban, prompting the latest round of litigation, which also includes a legal challenge from Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“They have a competitive advantage,” Blakeman said, referring to transgender athletes. “It’s unfair, and it’s also unsafe.”
The ruling comes after President Donald Trump, on his first day in office Monday, signed an executive order rolling back protections for transgender people. The order, among other things, declares that the federal government would recognize only two immutable sexes: male and female.
Colorado
Court: Elephants can’t pursue their release from zoo because they’re not human
DENVER (AP) — Five elephants at a Colorado zoo may be “majestic” but, since they’re not human, they do not have the legal right to pursue their release, Colorado’s highest court said Tuesday.
The ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court follows a similar court defeat in New York in 2022 for an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo in a case brought by an animal rights group.
Rulings in favor of the animals would have allowed lawyers for both Happy and the elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo — to pursue a long-held legal process for prisoners to challenge their detention and possibly be sent to live in an elephant sanctuary instead.
The Colorado court said its decision “does not turn on our regard for these majestic animals.”
“Instead, the legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person,” the court said. “And because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim,” it said in the ruling.
The same animal rights group that tried to win Happy’s release, the Nonhuman Rights Project, also brought the case in Colorado.
The group argued that the Colorado elephants, born in the wild in Africa, have shown signs of brain damage because the zoo is essentially a prison for such intelligent and social creatures, known to roam for miles a day. It wanted the animals released to one of the two accredited elephant sanctuaries in the United States because the group doesn’t think they can no longer live in the wild.
The zoo argued moving the elephants and potentially placing them with new animals would be cruel at their age, possibly causing unnecessary stress. It said they aren’t used to being in larger herds and, based on the zoo’s observations, the elephants don’t have the skills or desire to join one.
While welcoming the Colorado court’s ruling, the zoo said it was disappointed there had to be a legal fight over the issue and accused the Nonhuman Rights Project of “abusing court systems” to fundraise.
“It seems their real goal is to manipulate people into donating to their cause by incessantly publicizing sensational court cases with relentless calls for supporters to donate,” the zoo said in a statement.
The Nonhuman Rights Project said the latest ruling “perpetuates a clear injustice” and predicted future courts would reject the idea that only humans have a right to liberty.
Wisconsin
Man accused of setting fire to congressman’s office charged with arson
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors charged a Wisconsin man who allegedly told police he tried to burn down a congressman’s office because he was upset with the federal TikTok ban with multiple counts on Wednesday, including arson.
Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney filed a complaint against 19-year-old Caiden Stachowicz charging him with felony arson, making terrorist threats, attempted burglary and property damage. He would face more than 50 years behind bars if convicted on all counts.
Stachowicz, of Menasha, was scheduled to make his initial court appearance Wednesday morning. Online court records did not list an attorney for him.
According to the complaint, a police officer responded to a fire outside Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman’s Fond du Lac office around 1 a.m. Sunday and saw Stachowicz standing nearby.
The officer said that as he worked to put out the flames with his extinguisher, Stachowicz told him that he started the fire because he doesn’t like Grothman. The officer handcuffed Stachowicz and took him to the police department. Firefighters and police quickly extinguished the fire, limiting the damage.
During an interview at the department, Stachowicz told the officer that he bought gas and matches to start a fire at Grothman’s office, according to the complaint. He said that he tried to break into the office so he could start the fire inside but couldn’t break the window. He then poured the gas on an electrical box in the back of the building and around the front of the building, lit a match and watched it burn, according to the complaint.
He said he wanted to burn the building down because the U.S. government was shutting down TikTok and Grothman voted “yes” to shutting it down, according to the complaint. Grothman voted for a bill last April that mandated TikTok’s China-based company, ByteDance, sell its U.S. operation by Sunday.
Stachowicz said that he believed the shutdown violated his constitutional rights. He added that in the past he has participated in peaceful protests but no longer believes peace is an option, according to the complaint.
“Caiden said that it was a government building and wanted to cause disruption and make a point by starting the building on fire,” the complaint said. “Caiden said he wished the whole building would have burned down.”
Asked if he hoped people were inside the building, he said no and that he didn’t want to hurt anyone and didn’t want to harm Grothman himself.
TikTok went dark late Saturday, but the platform came back online hours later after then-President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to give ByteDance more time to find a buyer. Trump signed an executive order Monday after he was inaugurated instructing the U.S. attorney general not to enforce the ban for 75 days.
Grothman didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the charges Wednesday.
Lawsuit alleging excessive force against 2020 protesters has been settled
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A lawsuit alleging that law enforcement agents sent by President Donald Trump to protect a federal courthouse in 2020 used excessive force against racial justice protesters has been settled, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon said Tuesday.
The settlement requires the federal government to compensate the individuals who filed the lawsuit for the injuries that federal law enforcement caused them, in exchange for the individuals’ agreement to dismiss the lawsuit, according to a news release from the ACLU. No information was released about specific compensation amounts.
The plaintiffs included three military veterans, a college professor, several Black Lives Matter activists and a man who alleges that unidentified agents snatched him off a street for no reason blocks from the federal courthouse.
“We are proud to have represented our courageous clients,” ACLU of Oregon’s legal director, Kelly Simon, said in the news release. “They suffered serious injuries because of federal law enforcement’s unlawful, aggressive actions, and it is just and fair that they are being compensated.”
Thousands of protesters in Portland took to the streets for months in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, part of a wave of nationwide protests. They at times clashed with police, and militarized federal agents were sent to the city to quell the demonstrations.
The lawsuit alleged that federal agents in Portland exceeded the limits of their authority, making illegal arrests and using tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and other tactics to squelch the protests. Almost all of the plaintiffs alleged physical injuries and some were treated at hospitals, the lawsuit said.
A video of plaintiff and Navy veteran Christopher David’s encounter with U.S. agents outside the Portland courthouse circulated widely on social media. It showed one agent hitting David with a baton and another dousing him in the face with pepper spray. David suffered two broken bones in his hand.
The lawsuit also alleged that the then-acting director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, did not have the authority to send more than 100 agents to Portland because he was improperly appointed. Wolf abruptly resigned from the post in 2021, saying he was compelled to leave by “recent events,” including court rulings that found he could not legally hold the position.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security directed a request for comment about the settlement on Tuesday to the Department of Justice, which didn’t respond.
A federal investigative report later found that the militarized federal agents didn’t have the proper training or equipment and there was no plan for operating without the help of local police.
Local police arrested hundreds of people over the three months of protest and federal agents arrested nearly 100 people at the height of the demonstrations.
New York
Roller derby league loses bid to temporarily block ban on trans athletes
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York roller derby league has lost its bid to temporarily block a local ban on transgender female athletes.
Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Bruce Cozzens on Tuesday denied a request by the Long Island Roller Rebels to prevent Nassau County from enforcing its ban while its lawsuit is considered by the court.
In July, local lawmakers in the suburban county east of New York City banned transgender women and girls from playing on female sports teams at the county’s roughly 100 parks and recreational facilities.
The judge determined the new law does not exclude transgender women and girls from public facilities based on their gender identities as they can still play in coed sports leagues. He said allowing transgender women to play in female sports creates additional risk of injury and potential liability for the local government.
“There can be no question (even without discovery) that a biological male regardless of transitioning would be possessed of greater athleticism and speed, strength, muscle mass, stronger hearts and greater bone density,” Cozzens wrote. “The goal of the local law is to provide a safe environment for individuals who are born female to play.”
The roller derby league and the New York Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit on the league’s behalf, said they were disappointed by the ruling and intend to appeal it while their litigation proceeds.
Gabriella Larios, a staff attorney for the NYCLU, called the judge’s ruling an “outlier” that is inconsistent with other court decisions, and state laws protecting human rights and civil rights.
“At a time of rising anti-LGBTQ+ hate and violence across the country, keeping this ban intact is not only cruel, but it is also dangerous,” added Amanda “Curly Fry” Urena, president of the Roller Rebels. “We hope that New York’s courts will ultimately strike down this unlawful ban and acknowledge it for what it is — transphobic and unjust.”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, in a statement, applauded the decision and called it “common sense.”
The Republican had initially imposed the ban through an executive order last February, but that was struck down by the court after the roller derby league and NYCLU challenged it.
The county’s Republican-controlled Legislature then passed a local law to enshrine the ban, prompting the latest round of litigation, which also includes a legal challenge from Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“They have a competitive advantage,” Blakeman said, referring to transgender athletes. “It’s unfair, and it’s also unsafe.”
The ruling comes after President Donald Trump, on his first day in office Monday, signed an executive order rolling back protections for transgender people. The order, among other things, declares that the federal government would recognize only two immutable sexes: male and female.
Colorado
Court: Elephants can’t pursue their release from zoo because they’re not human
DENVER (AP) — Five elephants at a Colorado zoo may be “majestic” but, since they’re not human, they do not have the legal right to pursue their release, Colorado’s highest court said Tuesday.
The ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court follows a similar court defeat in New York in 2022 for an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo in a case brought by an animal rights group.
Rulings in favor of the animals would have allowed lawyers for both Happy and the elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo — to pursue a long-held legal process for prisoners to challenge their detention and possibly be sent to live in an elephant sanctuary instead.
The Colorado court said its decision “does not turn on our regard for these majestic animals.”
“Instead, the legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person,” the court said. “And because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim,” it said in the ruling.
The same animal rights group that tried to win Happy’s release, the Nonhuman Rights Project, also brought the case in Colorado.
The group argued that the Colorado elephants, born in the wild in Africa, have shown signs of brain damage because the zoo is essentially a prison for such intelligent and social creatures, known to roam for miles a day. It wanted the animals released to one of the two accredited elephant sanctuaries in the United States because the group doesn’t think they can no longer live in the wild.
The zoo argued moving the elephants and potentially placing them with new animals would be cruel at their age, possibly causing unnecessary stress. It said they aren’t used to being in larger herds and, based on the zoo’s observations, the elephants don’t have the skills or desire to join one.
While welcoming the Colorado court’s ruling, the zoo said it was disappointed there had to be a legal fight over the issue and accused the Nonhuman Rights Project of “abusing court systems” to fundraise.
“It seems their real goal is to manipulate people into donating to their cause by incessantly publicizing sensational court cases with relentless calls for supporters to donate,” the zoo said in a statement.
The Nonhuman Rights Project said the latest ruling “perpetuates a clear injustice” and predicted future courts would reject the idea that only humans have a right to liberty.
Wisconsin
Man accused of setting fire to congressman’s office charged with arson
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors charged a Wisconsin man who allegedly told police he tried to burn down a congressman’s office because he was upset with the federal TikTok ban with multiple counts on Wednesday, including arson.
Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney filed a complaint against 19-year-old Caiden Stachowicz charging him with felony arson, making terrorist threats, attempted burglary and property damage. He would face more than 50 years behind bars if convicted on all counts.
Stachowicz, of Menasha, was scheduled to make his initial court appearance Wednesday morning. Online court records did not list an attorney for him.
According to the complaint, a police officer responded to a fire outside Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman’s Fond du Lac office around 1 a.m. Sunday and saw Stachowicz standing nearby.
The officer said that as he worked to put out the flames with his extinguisher, Stachowicz told him that he started the fire because he doesn’t like Grothman. The officer handcuffed Stachowicz and took him to the police department. Firefighters and police quickly extinguished the fire, limiting the damage.
During an interview at the department, Stachowicz told the officer that he bought gas and matches to start a fire at Grothman’s office, according to the complaint. He said that he tried to break into the office so he could start the fire inside but couldn’t break the window. He then poured the gas on an electrical box in the back of the building and around the front of the building, lit a match and watched it burn, according to the complaint.
He said he wanted to burn the building down because the U.S. government was shutting down TikTok and Grothman voted “yes” to shutting it down, according to the complaint. Grothman voted for a bill last April that mandated TikTok’s China-based company, ByteDance, sell its U.S. operation by Sunday.
Stachowicz said that he believed the shutdown violated his constitutional rights. He added that in the past he has participated in peaceful protests but no longer believes peace is an option, according to the complaint.
“Caiden said that it was a government building and wanted to cause disruption and make a point by starting the building on fire,” the complaint said. “Caiden said he wished the whole building would have burned down.”
Asked if he hoped people were inside the building, he said no and that he didn’t want to hurt anyone and didn’t want to harm Grothman himself.
TikTok went dark late Saturday, but the platform came back online hours later after then-President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to give ByteDance more time to find a buyer. Trump signed an executive order Monday after he was inaugurated instructing the U.S. attorney general not to enforce the ban for 75 days.
Grothman didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the charges Wednesday.
