Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Laurence Love on Monday denied a preliminary injunction sought by a group of New York City-area police unions to block a city law banning the police use of choke holds or diaphragm compression, though he found that the unions successfully argued the statute's wording is too vague.

The law was passed this summer, shortly after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, and Love acknowledged the "seriousness" of the issue under discussion in the beginning of his opinion.