DOJ Sues Portland and St. Paul Over Mask Bans for Federal Officers

The Justice Department filed two lawsuits on Thursday, October 15, against the cities of St. Paul, Minnesota and Portland, Oregon. The suits challenge local rules that bar federal officers from wearing masks and require them to show identification. The department calls the rules unconstitutional attempts to regulate federal law enforcement and says they threaten officers who have faced harassment, doxxing and violence.

“Under the Supremacy Clause of our Nation’s Constitution, states and localities cannot regulate the Federal Government and its law enforcement officers,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr.

EconoTimes reports that St. Paul’s identification rule took effect March 14, 2026 and its face-covering rule March 22, with misdemeanor penalties for knowing violations. Portland’s code took effect June 26, 2026, and violations there are not crimes. The St. Paul complaint cites U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data: its Office of Professional Responsibility investigated 39 Minnesota cases involving threats or doxxing of ICE employees from January 2025 through March 2026, about 28% of its nationwide investigations in those categories.

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her has called the identification rule an accountability measure. KTTC reports the St. Paul council passed its mask ordinance in February after enhanced immigration enforcement in Minnesota earlier this year.

Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division said the two local laws are a direct regulation of federal law enforcement operations and threaten severe consequences for officers and public safety alike. He said the federal government, not state and local governments, decides what equipment federal officers may or may not wear while performing their official duties. U.S. Attorney Scott Bradford for the District of Oregon said laws like these impede federal law enforcement's ability to keep Oregonians safe and endanger the men and women who do that work.

The department argues that threatening officers with prosecution for protecting their identities and their families chills the enforcement of federal law and compromises sensitive law enforcement operations. In its reading of the Supremacy Clause, states and localities cannot regulate the federal government or its officers at all. Woodward added that the department will not tolerate the doxxing or harassment of federal officers, and he said laws like those in St. Paul and Portland enable violent behavior against federal officers and their families.

The suits are the latest in a series the Civil Division has brought against policies it says thwart federal law enforcement, with earlier cases in New York, Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey, California, Maryland, Philadelphia, Denver and Milwaukee. The Denver suit, filed October 8, named the City and County of Denver, Mayor Michael C. Johnston, City Attorney Michiko Ando Brown and Police Chief Ronald Thomas over a similar mask ban and identification requirement. The department says federal operations cannot be compromised by state or local measures that violate federal law, and Blanche's directive to the Civil Division covers state and local laws, policies and practices that facilitate violations of federal law or impede lawful federal operations.

Why it matters

The suits ask judges to block both cities from applying the rules to federal personnel.

A knowing violation in St. Paul can bring a fine, imprisonment or both, the complaint says.

Attorney General Todd Blanche has told the Civil Division to find more local laws that impede federal operations.