Four Memphis residents filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday accusing U.S. and Tennessee officials of violating the First Amendment through the Memphis Safe Task Force, a Trump-ordered effort meant to fight crime alongside state troopers and the Tennessee National Guard. The residents said they were harassed, arrested and physically mistreated after they went to public places to observe and record law enforcement activity.
The suit targets the task force, which plaintiffs describe as including agents from 13 federal agencies, and it ties the alleged mistreatment to what the plaintiffs say is retaliation for activities they consider protected under the First Amendment. The residents said that their interactions with task force agents often began after they stopped to gather information and record the task force’s activities in public.
The lawsuit says the task force has carried out more than 120,000 traffic stops since late September, during which it has also conducted searches for fugitives and served warrants in Memphis, a city of about 610,000 people that is majority Black. Plaintiffs allege the effect has been systematic: they describe an environment where people who film or observe police activity are met with threats and arrests.
“In the professed name of crime control, Task Force agents have stopped, menaced, and arrested Memphians engaging in routine, day-to-day activities,” the lawsuit states. The filing also describes plaintiffs as stopping to “gather information about and record Task Force activities,” including interactions that plaintiffs said occurred in public while they were filming.
In a statement responding to the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Justice said that in eight months the Memphis Safe Task Force made more than 9,000 arrests, including 951 known gang members, and located 150 missing children. The department said it “strongly disagree[s] with the allegations” and that it “will not tolerate any action that puts our law enforcement officers at risk,” adding it remains committed to “fair, impartial, and professional law enforcement practices.”
Hunter Demster, one of the plaintiffs, said he regularly saw the task force stop cars in his neighborhood, which he said has a large Hispanic population. In one interaction described in the lawsuit, Demster said he filmed a traffic stop and told people in the car that they had a right not to speak to police, after which he said he was surrounded by task force agents.
“It is a terrifying feeling,” Demster said. “I did nothing illegal. I used my First Amendment protected rights to hold up a phone and say some ‘know your rights’ information.”
The lawsuit also challenges Tennessee’s “Halo Law,” which plaintiffs say requires observers who have been warned to stay at least 25 feet (7.6 meters) away from law enforcement officers, or face arrest. The ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project said the Tennessee law is written broadly and gives officers wide discretion to apply it against observers even when the observers are not impeding law enforcement.
“ When observers go to the scene of task force activity and they are observing, they’re gathering information,” said Scarlet Kim, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “They are picking up their phones and cameras and documenting what’s happening. That’s all core protected First Amendment activity. And it’s not a basis for the government to essentially react in the way that they’re reacting.”
The lawsuit says the alleged retaliation is the result of federal policy and that officials failed to train agents not to retaliate against people engaged in protected First Amendment activities. Plaintiffs said they are asking the court to declare unconstitutional retaliation for observing and recording law enforcement activity and to prohibit agents from further retaliation. The suit also asks the court to declare unconstitutional the use of the “Halo Law” against defendants who are not interfering with officers or impeding their duties.
The Memphis Safe Task Force is part of a broader effort President Donald Trump has pursued to use National Guard troops and surge federal law enforcement in cities, particularly those controlled by Democrats, according to the AP report. Federal officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, former Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, have visited Memphis to praise the task force. The lawsuit, meanwhile, puts the question of how far enforcement can go—especially when people are recording police in public—squarely before a federal judge.