A federal judge has dismissed multiple claims filed by protesters and civil liberties groups after law enforcement forcefully cleared demonstrators from Lafayette Square Park ahead of Donald Trump’s infamous photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church last summer.

In a 51-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich wrote that Black Lives Matter D.C. failed to make an adequate case that former President Trump, former Attorney General William Barr, and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper conspired to “target Black people and their supporters” with illegal use of violent force during the June 1, 2020 events.

The plaintiffs failed to clearly demonstrate that federal officials had conspired to violate demonstrators’ rights, and there may have been “alternative explanations” for federal officials’ communications and activities “other than having formed an agreement,” the judge wrote.

Friedrich, a Trump appointee who served in the George W. Bush White House, rejected plaintiffs’ request for an injunction that would block similar actions against protesters in the future. She also ruled that federal officials named in the suits are entitled to qualified immunity.

The judge did allow litigation to proceed against D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and Arlington County Police, however. Plaintiffs accused the local police forces of using unprovoked force to disperse the gathering in the park, and Friedrich agreed that the allegations could amount to an unconstitutional restriction on protected speech.

“This violation, as alleged, would have been clear to every reasonable officer at the time it occurred,” the judge wrote.

The ACLU of D.C., which filed one of the suits on behalf of Black Lives Matter D.C. and eight demonstrators, denounced most of the decision in a statement Monday.

“Today’s ruling essentially gives the federal government a green light to use violence, including lethal force against demonstrators, as long as federal officials claim to be protecting national security,” said Scott Michelman, legal director with the D.C. ACLU. “Under today’s decision, Lafayette Square is now a Constitution-free zone when it comes to the actions of federal officials.”

Civil liberties groups filed suit on behalf of Black Lives Matter after several local residents, including a 9-year-old, said they received no warning before federal law enforcement deployed chemical irritants and rubber bullets to clear the park last year, as DCist/WAMU previously reported. They maintain that the day’s protests were peaceful First Amendment demonstrations.

“It is precisely such domination — in the form of centuries of white supremacy and subjugation of Black lives – that was the core focus of the peaceful demonstration in Lafayette Square,” the complaint said.

Michelman with the ACLU of D.C. says the group plans “to evaluate all our legal options to ensure that protesters cannot be wantonly attacked at the whim of a federal official.”