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Comment by cabaalis | Hacker News Reader

> U.S. District Judge Michael Simon issued a restraining order Thursday preventing federal agents from "arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force" directed at anyone they know to be a journalist or legal observer, unless they have probable cause to believe they have committed a crime.

> The order also blocks the defendants from seizing any photographic, audio and video recording equipment and press passes from people in those two categories, as well as from ordering them to stop recording or observing a protest.

Why is this not within the already defined rights of all Americans? I fail to see why journalists would need a special use case.

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Another poster mentioned that this order negates claims of qualified immunity. You're correct, this is already a protected right; I believe the order makes it so no officer can claim they made some kind of reasonable mistake and thus can't be held personally liable.

Police (and some journalists themselves) would love to see 1A limited to journalists and 2A limited to racist rednecks (...and, one supposes, 3A limited to families without pretty teenage daughters). The more the population can be divided, the better, for authoritarians.

sorry, what are 1A, 2A and 3A?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Amendment_to_the_United_...

Sure, these abbreviations are USA-centric. I thought that would be OK given the subject of TFA.

Ahhh... I think I was just on the wrong track, I was looking at the parent comment trying to place a 1a), 1b), 2a) ordering onto the points they made and getting confused.

Thanks!

I've lived in the US my entire life, and I was confused by your abbreviations. I don't know what "TFA" means, either.

"The Fine Article". Many people who are interested in civil rights refer to the amendments in this abbreviated fashion... It's fun to learn new things!

It is! Nevertheless, I was confused at first. I’m sure I would’ve figured it out eventually, given the context.

The first through third amendments to the US constitution.

If you're unaware the 1st amendment generally deals with the right to free speech, the 2nd is the ever controversial right to bear arms, and the 3rd is often mocked as obsolete, but has to do with disallowing the forced quartering of soldiers in people's homes.

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