Lawyers Have Bad News for ICE Agitators Who Think They Can Hide Behind ‘Legal Observer’ Status
Legal experts say people who call themselves “legal observers” have no special constitutional rights beyond those of any other citizen to watch and record police; they may face criminal consequences if they obstruct law enforcement. The remarks follow the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Good,a self-described legal observer,by an ICE agent in Minnesota – video shows her car blocking a road,her refusal to exit,and than accelerating toward an agent before he fired; DHS reported the agent sustained a torso injury from the vehicle. Conservative and mainstream attorneys quoted in the piece stress the legal line is between lawful observation and unlawful interference, and note activists sometimes provoke or obstruct officers while invoking a purported “observer” status.activist accounts and social posts from groups like Minnesota ICE Watch framed agents as aggressors, but some clips reportedly show protesters pushing or otherwise confronting officers. The article notes the National Lawyers Guild popularized the “legal observer” label and that courts have protected observers who do not commit crimes (including a 2020 Ninth Circuit decision), but emphasizes that claiming the role does not provide immunity or extra constitutional protections.
Leftist protesters calling themselves “legal observers” have no unique First Amendment rights when interacting with law enforcement, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Politicians blasted Immigration and Customs Enforcement in statements describing an agent’s fatal shooting of “legal observer” Renee Good on Jan. 7 in Minnesota, invoking a term activists have used for decades to describe those who monitor police activity during protests. Such titles carry no constitutional significance and do not remove consequences for impeding law enforcement, as Good is accused of doing, civil rights lawyers told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“These observers have the same rights as any other citizen to observe and record law enforcement conduct in public,” Timothy Snowball, a senior attorney for the conservative Legal Insurrection Foundation, remarked. “However, the legal line is between observation and obstruction. There is a wide gulf between observation and purposefully trying to prevent law enforcement from doing their duty.”
“There are no special or unique protections. ‘Legal observers’ can (and should be able to) observe and record, but they can’t interfere with law enforcement activities — that’s a crime,” Manhattan Institute constitutional scholar and attorney Ilya Shapiro told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Footage from the Minneapolis shooting showed ICE agents surrounding Good’s car as it blocked part of the road. She refused to step out when they asked her to, and she suddenly drove toward one agent before he fired multiple shots.
The Department of Homeland Security reported that the car injured the agent’s torso from impact. Good’s female partner was seen filming the agents on her phone and telling Good, “drive, baby, drive,” just before Good accelerated her car.
There are multiple ways these supposed observers can run afoul of the law, such as ignoring an order to disperse or keep proper distance from officers, Snowball told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“However, the prohibitions on interference also go in the other direction if law enforcement attempts to use its authority or force to stop the public from lawful observation or recording when there is no obstruction taking place,” he said. “But in the most recent incidents, the former appears to be the case, rather than the latter.”
Minnesota ICE Watch, a group consisting of Good and other ICE-tracking activists, d a video on Instagram of a raid at a gas station where a protester clashed with a federal agent while seemingly filming him.
“The G3STAPO TERRORIST Hit a man and then jumped him for LEGALLY OBSERVING,” the Instagram post said — despite the video showing that the man pushed the agent’s arm when told to step back, apparently prompting the agent to arrest.
The ICE Watch Instagram account also d a clip from the past week showing the aftermath of a car crash between ICE and a “legal observer,” blaming authorities for the wreck without context. Agents were seen restraining the driver on the ground.
“Activists and protesters can weaponize a made-up special legal observer status by crossing the line I mentioned and specifically interfering with law enforcement, or provoking law enforcement,” Snowball said. “There is also, as in many cases, a general ignorance of the law and Constitution at issue when it comes to many of these ‘legal observers.’”
The left-wing National Lawyers Guild popularized and trademarked the legal observer phrase after taking inspiration from the Black Panther Party’s tactics of monitoring police in the 1960s. Many self-described legal observers have been arrested at left-wing demonstrations in the U.S. in recent decades while claiming to follow the law, but with hardly any prosecutions, according to news reports and activist groups. Federal appeals judges in Oregon ruled in 2020 that legal observers are free to remain at Black Lives Matter protests if they are not committing crimes, granting them the same permissions as journalists.
“Many appear to be entirely unaware or misled as to the legal issues in question, and may genuinely believe they have legal rights they do not actually possess,” Snowball told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “But as we learned in the first year of law school: ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse.’”
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