Three Judges, Three Presidents, One Answer: Feds Can't Shoot Journalists Covering ICE Raids
9th Circuit affirms preliminary injunction but orders district court to narrow its scope.
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court panel that crossed every line of presidential appointment upheld a preliminary injunction Wednesday shielding journalists, protesters, and legal observers from the indiscriminate use of crowd-control weapons by federal immigration agents — a ruling that carries extra weight precisely because of who signed it.
Judge Mark J. Bennett, a Donald Trump appointee, joined Clinton-era Judge Ronald M. Gould and Obama pick Jacqueline H. Nguyen in affirming that the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem likely violated the First Amendment when federal agents — drawn from ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Protective Service — opened fire on members of the press and peaceful demonstrators during anti-ICE protests across Southern California in the summer of 2025.
The ruling was unanimous. That matters, especially for outlets like Migrant Insider where this is our 165 story about ICE during Trump’s second term. We couldn’t do it…