Civil Suit Case No. 22CV014917 was filed one week ago, on Monday July 25, at the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda. Among the filings is an application for a temporary restraining order, a complaint for injunctive relief or nuisance, and five affidavits by Port officials and a private investigator.
The case is aimed at securing a temporary restraining order, followed by a preliminary injunction for the purpose of obtaining a court order to deem the protests illegal. The City of Oakland is pursuing this route because a preliminary injunction would get decided immediately, allowing the City to quickly obtain a court order. Once the protests are declared illegal, the City has the jurisdiction to trample the First Amendment rights of the protesters who could be found in “contempt of court,” giving the green light to police to carry out mass arrests.
Not only would their profession be “illegal” with AB5, but the City of Oakland, with the full support of the Newsom administration, seeks to make their protests illegal as well. Already truckers have been corralled to protest in so-called “free speech zones” or face arrest by the heavy police presence.