LOS ANGELES, CA — With major No Kings protests planned across Los Angeles this weekend, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez introduced an emergency Rule 23 motion in today’s City Council meeting in response to the Los Angeles Police Department and City Attorney’s attempt to lift a federal injunction restricting the use of force against journalists. The Council voted unanimously to support the measure.
The motion directs the City Attorney to immediately withdraw the filing to lift the injunction and to appear in an emergency closed session to provide updates and seek guidance from Council. The motion also requires the City Attorney, with support from the Chief Legislative Analyst, to report within 30 days on all proactive litigation the office has initiated without explicit direction from the City Council or Mayor since July 1, 2024.
“Journalism is under attack in this country — from the Trump Administration’s revocation of press access to the Pentagon to corporate consolidation of local newsrooms,” said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez. “The answer cannot be for Los Angeles to join that assault by undermining court-ordered protections for journalists. The press must remain free, and our City must never spend public dollars to suppress accountability.”
In Fiscal Year 2024-25 alone, the City of Los Angeles paid over $68 million in liability costs as a result of LAPD actions that caused bodily harm to journalists and protestors. Since protests against the Trump Administration’s immigration raids began in June 2025, at least 60 claims have been filed against the LAPD for use of force.
The injunction at issue, issued by Judge Hernán Vera of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, found that the LAPD had used “unlawful force against members of the media” during demonstrations documenting police actions against immigrant communities.
“While the federal government wages a campaign of fear against immigrants, our responsibility is to protect Angelenos — not to greenlight more violence against those who tell their stories,” added Councilmember Hernandez. “Today’s vote makes clear that this Council stands with the press, with our communities, with our First Amendment right to free speech, and with the truth.”
The motion builds on Councilmember Hernandez’s broader legislative work to rein in police misconduct, restore public trust, and enforce fiscal responsibility, including motions to require full transparency around LAPD’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, mandate public reporting of all use-of-force incidents, and track the true cost of police violence to taxpayers.
Read the full motion here.