U.S. Agents Sued For Damages Under Maine Civil Rights Act For Arresting and Threatening A Peaceful Neighborhood Observer During ICE’s January Rampage
This is the first lawsuit in Maine under state law for monetary remedies against DHS agents for violating the constitutional rights of legal observers, and one of the first actions for damages under a state civil rights law against DHS agents nationwide. The Plaintiff is a retired VA counselor who was exercising his constitutional right to follow and monitor immigration agents in his neighborhood.
Media contacts:
Public Justice: communications@publicjustice.net
David Webbert: 207-333-2725; david@work.law
Portland – Robert Peck, of South Portland, filed a lawsuit this morning against two federal immigration agents who were recorded violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights during “Operation Catch of the Day.”
On January 22, 2026, Mr. Peck filmed two masked and armed agents approach his car and admonish him for committing a federal crime merely by driving at a safe distance behind their vehicle on public roads near his home. They only let him go after stating, “That’s your one warning, if you keep doing it, we’ll pull you back out and arrest you.”
Mr. Peck is a 67-year-old U.S. citizen, the court complaint states, who “files this complaint under the Maine Civil Rights Act to uphold the fundamental First Amendment right of Americans to peacefully observe the public actions of their government.” The Complaint further explains the two agents detained him without reasonable suspicion, which was an “unconstitutional seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
This case challenges a key instrument of intimidation and retaliation used by DHS against Americans nationwide who exercise their First Amendment rights to observe and protest the actions of ICE agents: deploying a criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 111, to chill and punish protected free speech by falsely claiming that this statute makes it a crime for Americans merely to observe the public activities of federal agents. In truth, that statute makes it a crime to “forcibly impede” law enforcement and no reasonable federal agent could think Mr. Peck’s activity of following agents at a safe distance in a car met that definition.
“To protect our basic freedoms, we seek a clear precedent that Maine and other states can hold federal immigration agents accountable if they violate people’s constitutional rights,” said David Webbert of Johnson, Webbert & Beard, LLP, one of Mr. Peck’s lawyers. “Without financial consequences in a court of law, ICE and other federal agents will be able to turn America into a police state.”
“This is just one example out of many that demonstrates how our government and its operatives are increasingly flouting the law to target immigrants and stifle protected free speech,” said Shelby Leighton of Public Justice, one of the attorneys who represents Mr. Peck. “We are fortunate that in Maine we have a state law that empowers Mainers to hold government agents accountable for these abuses of power, and we look forward to enforcing that law in court.”
A copy of the Court Complaint can be found here. Mr. Peck is represented by attorneys Shelby Leighton and Ana Builes of Public Justice and lawyers David Webbert, Braden Beard, and Allan Townsend of the civil rights law firm Johnson, Webbert & Beard, LLP.
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