ACLU Sues Memphis Taskforce Over 25-Foot Rule and False Arrests
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 21
ACLU Sues Memphis Taskforce Over 25-Foot Rule and False Arrests
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 21
Summary
Nine months after Trump sent a permanent anti-crime taskforce into Memphis, the ACLU of Tennessee sued, alleging agents intimidated community observers through surveillance, tailing, threats and at least one false arrest.
The complaint says officers repeatedly weaponized Tennessee’s 25-foot buffer law to push photographers and legal observers away, while activists reported agents showing up at wrong houses and conducting heavily armed raids on innocent families.
Named observers described escalating reprisals: Jessica Chodor was arrested on Oct. 28, 2025 and released Thursday after charges were later dropped; others said agents photographed them, stopped their cars and threatened jail.
The taskforce — made up of thousands of federal and state officers — was deployed to cut crime, but the lawsuit casts the operation as a broader test of First Amendment protections for residents documenting law enforcement.