DOJ sues St. Paul and Portland, Oregon, over mask and ID requirements for federal officers

The Justice Department has sued St. Paul and Portland, Oregon, over local ordinances that bar federal officers from wearing masks and require them to identify themselves, calling the rules "unconstitutional attempts to regulate federal law enforcement officers," the department said in a news release.

The department filed two lawsuits, one against each city.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. said the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution bars states and localities from regulating federal law enforcement officers. He said the department "will never tolerate the doxxing or harassment of federal officers," or any law that enables violence against them and their families.

The lawsuits allege the laws threaten the safety of federal officers, who the department says have faced harassment, doxxing and even violence. The department also argues that threatening officers with prosecution for protecting their identities and their families chills enforcement of federal law and compromises sensitive operations.

Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the department's Civil Division called the ordinances "a direct regulation of federal law enforcement operations." He said the federal government, not state and local governments, "gets to decide which equipment federal officers may or may not wear" on duty.

The St. Paul City Council voted unanimously this year to require all law enforcement officers working in the city to show their faces, except in limited cases such as undercover work. Council members said the ordinance responded to community complaints about masked federal officers. A separate ordinance passed the week before requires officers to visibly display badges.

Attorney General Blanche has instructed the Civil Division to identify state and local laws, policies and practices that facilitate violations of federal law or impede lawful federal operations, the department said.

The St. Paul and Portland suits are the latest in a series of Civil Division lawsuits targeting policies the department calls illegal and designed to thwart federal law enforcement, including in New York, Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey, California, Maryland, Philadelphia, Denver and Milwaukee.