ACLU lawsuit revealed Memphis Safe Task Force retaliated against residents who recorded its agents

On May 13, 2026, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit, Demster v. Blanche, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, on behalf of four Memphis residents who documented a sustained pattern of retaliation by the multi-agency Memphis Safe Task Force against people recording its agents. Defendants include the heads of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The complaint centers on Tennessee's "Halo Law," which bars approaching within 25 feet of an officer after a warning; according to plaintiff Hunter Demster's declaration, Task Force members invoked the law between 40 and 50 times to threaten him with arrest and push him back from scenes he was filming. On October 28, 2025, agents tackled and arrested observer Jessica Chodor while she filmed a Task Force traffic stop, charging her with resisting official detention and holding her in Shelby County Jail for 27 hours; the charge was later dismissed. On December 12, 2025, agents surrounded Demster's car during a traffic stop and a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper wrote him a ticket that, when he appeared in court, had never been filed in the system. The suit also alleges agents photographed observers' faces, vehicles, and license plates, surveilled their homes with unmarked vehicles, identified and taunted them by name, and directed lights into cameras to obstruct recording.

The ACLU argues that recording law enforcement performing public duties is a core First Amendment right and that the Task Force's conduct amounts to a coordinated campaign to deter documentation of its operations. The lawsuit follows earlier scrutiny of the Task Force, including a fatal DEA shooting during an arrest and the underlying federal deployment to Memphis, and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief along with damages.

Updates

2026-05-28 — ACLU sought a preliminary injunction with declarations from nine additional residents [6]

The ACLU filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to block the Task Force from retaliating against observers while the case proceeds. The motion included declarations from nine community members describing additional incidents, including one plaintiff tackled and pinned facedown without being told they were under arrest, an ICE agent addressing an observer by name across multiple scenes, and agents positioning a truck behind a plaintiff's vehicle and accelerating toward it.

2026-09-08 — New declaration detailed continued retaliation against plaintiff Hunter Demster [7]

The ACLU filed a new declaration describing three further incidents against Demster since the May filing. On August 26, Task Force agents used a "moving wall" tactic, repeatedly invoking the Halo Law's 25-foot rule to push him back while he filmed an arrest, then tackled, pinned, and arrested him; an attorney who arrived at the scene was also threatened with arrest under the Halo Law. On August 30 and September 3, agents photographed or filmed Demster and his home, once from across the street and once from a vehicle parked outside his house. A federal court is scheduled to hear arguments on the pending preliminary-injunction motion on September 23, 2026.