To those three things earlier add one more: now the Feds not only are objecting to the idea that journalists and legal observers be exempt from dispersal orders, they are lying about what this even means.

“Simply put, the federal government has the legal obligation and right to protect federal property and federal officers, and the public has a compelling interest in the protection of that property and personnel,” Warden wrote. ”The press is free to observe and report on the destruction of that property, but it is not entitled to special, after-hours access to that property in the face of lawful order to disperse.”

This is a straw man, of course, as almost none of the actions of Federal police have been on federal property, unless we are expanding the definition of federal property to include anywhere a federal officer happens to be.