Marsha Blackburn Wants Secret Police
Sen. Blackburn introduced a bill this week that would make it a crime to publish the name of a federal law enforcement officer.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R–Tenn.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would make it a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison to publish the name of a federal law enforcement officer with the intent to obstruct an investigation.
Blackburn unveiled the "Protecting Law Enforcement from Doxxing Act" as masked Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are carrying out nationwide raids under the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts.
These raids have sparked public protests and pushback from local officials, including Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell, who has released records of local police interactions with ICE that include the names of ICE agents.
"Blue city mayors are doing everything they can to obstruct the Trump administration's efforts to deport criminal illegal aliens," Blackburn said in a press release. "Just last week, Nashville Mayor O'Connell and his office doxxed federal law enforcement officers after the Trump administration worked with Tennessee Highway Patrol to arrest criminal illegal aliens."
However, press freedom groups say the bill raises serious First Amendment concerns.
"Public oversight and accountability relies on accurate news about law enforcement activity," Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy at the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press tells Reason. "The bill is dangerously overbroad and could be used to chill newsgathering and reporting that is clearly in the public interest."
Government employees, including law enforcement officers, generally don't have the presumption of privacy when it comes to information such as their names, salaries, and business conducted in public. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped police and politicians from accusing people of "doxxing" officers for releasing public information.
Last month, ICE agents stormed a house in Irvine, California, executing a search warrant for a man accused of putting up flyers around Los Angeles with photos, names, and phone numbers of several ICE agents operating in the area. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment from Reason to state what law the man was accused of violating.
While the requirement in Blackburn's proposed law for an intent to obstruct an investigation would appear to provide some safeguard against abuse, Blackburn and other Republicans' comments make clear that their goal is to insulate ICE from transparency.
When asked by reporters on Friday if he was OK with ICE agents not identifying themselves, House Speaker Mike Johnson responded, "Why, so they can target them? So they can put names and faces online and dox them? That's what these activists do."
What Blackburn and Johnson's comments ignore is that an anonymous police force is an unaccountable police force.
For example, when New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) attempted to investigate the hundreds of complaints of police brutality and misconduct during the 2020 George Floyd protests, it was forced to close a third of the cases because it couldn't identify the officers involved. The CCRB noted that it faced "unprecedented challenges in investigating these complaints" due to officers covering their names and badge numbers, failing to turn on their body-worn cameras, and failing to file reports.
Of course, it's already functionally impossible to sue a federal law enforcement officer for a civil rights violation thanks to the Supreme Court's evisceration of the Bivens doctrine, but the normalization of anonymous federal agents will further immunize them from other forms of oversight such as media, inspector general, and congressional investigations.
There are already laws on the books to handle those who threaten federal officers or interfere in investigations. It's essential for government transparency, public trust, and the rule of law that the officials dictating and enforcing public policies can be identified by media outlets and citizens without fear of retribution.
