Appeals court: Federal judge must reconsider whether ‘buffer law’ is in effect during media lawsuit

A federal judge in Nashville who decided against blocking Tennessee’s “buffer law” must reconsider while a coalition of media organizations challenge its constitutionality, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Tennessee’s General Assembly passed the law in May 2025, allowing law enforcement to order members of the public, including media, to stay 25 feet away from crime scenes, traffic stops and any “ongoing and immediate threat to public safety.” Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor.

A coalition of media organizations — including the Tennessee Lookout, the Nashville Banner, Gannett, Scripps Media and TEGNA — sued later that month, arguing the law is vague and prevents newsgathering, violating the First Amendment. The plaintiffs, represented by Paul McAdoo and Grayson Clary of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, asked the court to block the law’s enforcement.

U.S. District Judge William Campbell Jr., who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018, ruled in February that the law would remain in effect while the lawsuit moves forward.

Memphis task force using TN ‘buffer law,’ preventing up-close recording of police activity

Campbell stated the plaintiffs had not shown a particular situation where the law “impacted a reporter or anyone” and so failed to show how the law’s continued enforcement would cause irreparable harm.

A three-judge panel in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Tuesday that Campbell failed to consider whether the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim, “the most important (factor) in First Amendment cases.”

The panel also found that the media organizations have standing to sue at this stage because “their reporters routinely face a choice between defying a direct order of a police officer — with an attendant threat of criminal punishment for the reporters and their employers alike — or ceasing activity protected by the First Amendment.”

Chief Judge Raymond M. Kethledge, a Bush appointee, Senior Judge R. Guy Cole, Jr., a Clinton appointee, and Judge Andre B. Mathis, a Biden appointee, served on the panel.

The injunction request now returns to Campbell’s court for further consideration.

The buffer law has been invoked on multiple occasions by the Memphis Safe Task Force, a group of federal and state agencies formed by Trump. Task Force officers used the law to order observers to back away from traffic stops and arrests, keeping task force activities in public spaces out of view, according to a separate lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Tennessee on behalf of four observers.

Lebanon Republican Sen. Mark Pody sponsored the legislation and said during the legislative session that it was intended to protect the work of law enforcement. 

Similar laws in Indiana and Louisiana were struck down for giving police overly broad discretion after lawsuits from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. 

Adam Friedman and Anita Wadhwani contributed to this report.