A federal judge on Thursday issued a 14-day order, temporarily barring federal officers from using force, threats and dispersal orders against journalists or legal observers documenting the daily demonstrations in downtown Portland.

During the hearing, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon quoted case law from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying, “When wrongdoing is underway, officials have great incentive to blindfold the eyes of the Fourth Estate. The free press is the guardian of the public interest, and the judiciary is the guardian of the press.”

Attorney Matthew Borden, representing the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, urged the judge to “stop the federal agents’ occupation of Portland” and submitted at least a dozen statements from journalists, photojournalists and legal observers who have suffered shots to the back, neck and legs from impact munitions fired by federal officers outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in the last month.

“These are not accidents. These are not inadvertent shots,” Borden said. “These are acts of intimidation by a tyrant, and they have no place in the city of Portland, and they have no place in this country.‘'