Calling the curfews imposed throughout Southern California "draconian," the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wedbesday on behalf of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and individual journalists, protesters and others against Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.
ACLU claims in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles that the curfews are a violation of the First Amendment because they suppress all political protest in the evening hours and restricting movement outside of working hours is a violation of the Constitution's protection of freedom of movement.
"The city and county of Los Angeles are attempting to use these curfews to suppress Black Lives Matter-L.A.'s right to protest," Melina Abdullah, a co-founder of BLM-L.A., said.
"They are attempting to suppress our ability to fully mobilize and focus full attention on the true issue of concern in the protests -- police violence against black people."
The lawsuit claims the curfews also prohibit journalists from being able to fully report their stories from the scenes of the protests.
"These unconstitutional curfews have suppressed a huge amount of important political protest activity and disrupted the lives of over 10 million people," Ahilan Arulanantham, senior counsel of the ACLU SoCal, said. "The curfews must end now."
Sheriff Alex Villanueva has said curfews in the county will remain in effect until the protests end.
