PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Barriers placed in front of the Mark Hatfield Federal Courthouse in downtown Portland in July 2020 were being removed Monday night.
The barriers and fencing surrounding the federal courthouse were put up during the nightly protests that roiled the city throughout 2020.
KOIN 6 News reached out to the US Attorneys Office in Oregon for more information about the removal of the barriers.
When the barriers were originally put into place, then-Commissioner Chloe Eudaly noted they blocked a throughway and instituted daily fines until the barriers were removed.
But in October, after the Department of Homeland Security had racked up millions of dollars in fines — on paper — from two city bureaus irked by the iron barricade wrapped around the city’s federal courthouse, they announced they had no intention of paying.
In fact, Homeland Security said the financial penalties imposed by the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Bureau of Environmental Services are unlawful, citing an argument straight from a civics textbook: the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.