Feds Temporarily Restrained

On Dec. 5, two human rights activists, Chloe Longworth and Anna Lardner, represented by activist legal defense nonprofit Civil Liberties Defense Center, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Trump administration, Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security alleging that new rules regarding conduct on federal property are unconstitutional.

On Dec. 10, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken granted a temporary restraining order, barring the DHS from enforcing a “loud or unusual noise” provision of the new rules for 14 days while the court determines whether or not a permanent injunction of the rules will be upheld.

In a statement to Eugene Weekly, CLDC’s founder and director of litigation and advocacy, Lauren Regan, writes that the court’s ruling on the TRO is specific to the loud or unusual noise provision of the rules because of a recent Supreme Court ruling that greatly limits nationwide injunctions.

Regan adds, “The next phase of this case includes the government filing briefs defending its actions and us replying to them, and then the court ruling on a more permanent injunction.” Regan writes that if the court determines that the rule is unconstitutional, “activists around the country will also benefit from that ruling.”

In her ruling, Aiken writes, “the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits or, at the very least, have raised serious questions going to the merits of their First Amendment claims concerning the vagueness and overbreadth of the Unusual Noise Provision as applied to a traditional public forum.”

The rules, originally meant to go in effect January 2026, were expedited and went in effect Nov. 5. The rules include provisions which allow for federal officers to detain protesters who engage in conduct “on Federal property or in areas outside Federal property that affects, threatens, or endangers Federal property or persons on the Federal property.” This includes things like “loud or unusual noise,” wearing a mask, camping or using tobacco.

On Nov. 18, Longworth was detained, arrested and issued a citation for violating the “unusual noise” provision. She was using a megaphone on city-owned sidewalks outside the Eugene Federal Building. She was later released and her charges were dropped. The next day, Longworth showed up again outside a federal building where a DHS officer threatened to arrest her for yelling. On Nov. 25, federal officers threatened Lardner with arrest for reading excerpts of a book on a public sidewalk outside of the federal building.

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

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