Independent photojournalist hit projectiles fired by Portland federal agents

A group of journalists who were assaulted and had their equipment seized by police officers in Portland, Oregon, while covering Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020 have settled a federal lawsuit with the city for nearly $1 million. The Portland City Council approved the settlement payment on March 5, 2025.

The $938,000 settlement also reinforces protections through 2028 for journalists who document protests in Portland, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case on the journalists’ behalf.

The protections were initially put in place by a preliminary injunction in July 2020, which barred the Portland Police Bureau from arresting journalists or seizing their equipment without probable cause, and exempted journalists from dispersal orders.

A similar injunction was later entered against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals Service personnel. That order was dissolved in March 2022, when the court ruled that fewer, smaller protests in Portland had reduced the need for it.

Independent journalist John Rudoff was documenting a protest in June 2020 when he was hit with pepper balls in what seemed to be a targeted attack by Portland police, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at the time.

Rudoff and a group of other journalists, as well as two legal observers, filed their suit in federal court later that month, alleging that violent behavior by law enforcement was intended to intimidate the press and suppress reporting on officers’ misconduct.

He was documenting a protest the next month when he was shot by a federal agent in the shoulder with a rubber bullet, days before the preliminary injunction was extended to federal personnel. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when he was shot he was wearing body armor and a helmet labeled with the word “press,” as well as carrying two cameras and a National Press Photographers Association press pass.

The injunction targeting Portland police was dissolved in May 2023 after the court dismissed some of the plaintiffs’ claims against the city, pointing to changes in state law governing police crowd-control techniques, including limiting the use of tear gas.

The Portland Police Bureau had also updated its directive on responding to lawful demonstrations to include protections similar to those established by the injunction, according to the ACLU.

Attorney Matthew Borden, whose firm BraunHagey & Borden also represented the journalists, celebrated the protections established by the agreement.

“Freedom of the press is a constitutional check against abuse of government power—one that has become all the more critical in light of the current federal regime,” he said. “Nobody should have to face the nightly storm of violence that our clients braved to capture what actually happened at the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Portland.”