A Statute That Purports to Make Illegal the Videotaping of Police in Public Violates the 1st Amendment

• Videotaping Law Enforcement Officers in Public
• The First Amendment and Videotaping Law Enforcement Officers

A private person videotaping law enforcement officers in public, while the officers are in the performance of their duties, is a First Amendment right.  As such, a state statute attempting to criminalize the act of videotaping an officer while acting in the performance of his or her duties is unconstitutional.

The Arizona Legislature enacted a new statute via HB (“House Bill ”) 2319, codified at Arizona Revised Statutes (i.e., “A.R.S.”) § 13-3732, which made it a class 3 misdemeanor for “a person to knowingly make a video recording of law enforcement activity if the person making the video recording is within eight feet” of the activity and has been directed to stop recording by law enforcement.  Scheduled to take effect on September 22, 2022, plaintiffs sued (under 42 U.S.C. § 1983) defendant Mark Brnovich in federal court in his capacity as the Arizona Attorney General, seeking a preliminary injunction preventing the enforcement of this new criminal statute.  The plaintiffs argued that the new statute infringed on their First (freedom of speech) and Fourteenth (due process) Amendment rights   AG Brnovich made it easy by rolling over in this lawsuit, filing a “Notice of Non-Opposition” in response.

The federal District Court of Arizona granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, “enjoin(ing) the enforcement of A.R.S. § 13-3732 pending further order.”  Recognizing that this lawsuit is only in its preliminary stages, the ....