https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/media/aclu-minnesota-journalists-lawsuit/index.html

By Brian Stelter, CNN Business

Updated 9:24 AM ET, Wed June 3, 2020

New York (CNN Business)The American Civil Liberties Union says it is filing a class-action lawsuit and asking a Minnesota court to stop what it calls "unconstitutional conduct targeting journalists."

"The past week has been marked by an extraordinary escalation of unlawful force deliberately targeting reporters," the ACLU says in Wednesday's filing.

The organization says it intends to file suits in other states, as well, since members of the media have been impacted in more than a dozen states as protestors take to the streets to demand justice for the death of George Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of police.

"We are facing a full-scale assault on the First Amendment freedom of the press," Brian Hauss, staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a statement. "We will not let these official abuses go unanswered. This is the first of many lawsuits the ACLU intends to file across the country. Law enforcement officers who target journalists will be held accountable."

Reporters have been arrested by police from Florida to Nevada; pelted by police rubber bullets fired by police from Washington, D.C. to California; and attacked by protesters from Arizona to Pennsylvania. In one of the highest-profile examples, a CNN crew was briefly taken into custody on Friday by Minnesota State Police on live TV. The state's governor apologized for the wrongful arrest.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker said on Tuesday it has counted 211 "press freedom violations" since the start of the George Floyd protests last week, which in some cases have led to riots. The group's records show "33+ arrests, 143 assaults (118 by police, 25 by others), 35 equipment/newsroom damage" as of Tuesday night.

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