Are chokeholds illegal? It depends on who applies the hold and the circumstances. Federal law enforcement officers are barred from using them except when deadly force is authorized, and at least 17 states plus most large police departments have adopted similar or stricter limits. For civilians, a chokehold is treated as deadly force, so it is only lawful in genuine self-defense against a life-threatening attack. Inside regulated combat sports, chokeholds are legal because everyone in the cage or on the mat has consented. Outside those narrow lanes, applying a chokehold almost always exposes you to criminal charges and a civil lawsuit.
When Police Can and Cannot Use a Chokehold
Executive Order 14074, signed in May 2022, ordered every federal law enforcement agency to ban chokeholds and carotid restraints unless the officer is in a situation where deadly force is already authorized by law.1GovInfo. Executive Order 14074 A federal agent cannot use a neck restraint on someone who is merely uncooperative. The exception is narrow: an immediate, life-threatening danger.
Congress tried to go broader. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed the House in March 2021 but never cleared the Senate, so there is no single federal statute banning chokeholds across all agencies nationwide.2Congress.gov. H.R.1280 – George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021
States filled part of that gap. By mid-2021, at least 17 states had passed legislation banning or restricting police use of chokeholds and neck restraints. Some make it a felony for an officer to apply a chokehold that causes serious injury or death. Others limit neck restraints to situations where deadly force would otherwise be justified, effectively classifying every chokehold as lethal force. Department policies moved in the same direction: among the 65 largest police departments in the country, the vast majority now prohibit chokeholds outright, and nearly as many specifically prohibit carotid holds.
Policies usually distinguish two techniques. A respiratory chokehold compresses the windpipe and blocks air. A carotid restraint compresses the arteries on the sides of the neck and cuts blood flow to the brain. Both can knock someone unconscious in seconds and kill within minutes. Most current bans cover both, though a few departments still allow carotid restraints in deadly-force situations while banning respiratory chokeholds entirely.
When a police chokehold case reaches court, judges apply the standard from Graham v. Connor (1989): whether a reasonable officer facing the same facts would have found the force appropriate.3Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. Use of Force – Part I Chokeholds rarely pass that test on someone who is handcuffed, pinned, or not physically resisting, because less dangerous options almost always exist. Federal policy also requires officers to intervene when a colleague uses excessive force, so standing by during a banned neck restraint can itself trigger discipline or liability.4United States Department of Justice. 1-16.000 – Department of Justice Policy on Use of Force
Can a Civilian Use a Chokehold in Self-Defense?
Yes, but the bar is high. Every person has the right to use physical force to defend themselves, and the force has to match the threat. Because a chokehold can kill, courts in nearly every jurisdiction treat it as deadly force. That means you can only justify one if you reasonably believed you were facing an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm, such as an armed attacker or someone actively trying to seriously injure you.
The moment the threat ends, the justification ends with it. If your attacker stops resisting and you keep squeezing, you have crossed from self-defense into potential assault, manslaughter, or worse. Courts examine the full timeline: what you knew when you applied the hold, whether you had a way to retreat safely, and whether you released the hold once the danger passed. Some states impose a duty to retreat before using deadly force; others follow stand-your-ground rules that remove that obligation in certain places.
Get the judgment wrong and the consequences are heavy. If a prosecutor decides the threat did not justify deadly force, you can be charged with assault, aggravated assault, or homicide. Even if criminal charges never come, the injured person or their family can still sue.
Chokeholds in Combat Sports
Chokeholds are legal and routine in organized combat sports like mixed martial arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and judo. The Unified Rules of MMA permit a wide range of submission techniques, including chokeholds, while banning things like hair pulling and strikes to the back of the head.5Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports. Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts A caught fighter can tap the opponent, tap the mat, or verbally submit, and the referee stops the match.
What makes this lawful is consent and structure. Competitors know chokeholds are part of the rules, trained referees supervise, and medical staff are present. Participants generally sign liability waivers that release the gym, promoter, and opponent from ordinary negligence claims tied to competition injuries.
Waivers have limits. They cover ordinary negligence, not intentional harm or reckless disregard for safety. A fighter who refuses to release a chokehold after a tap or after the referee calls a stop is outside the rules of the sport, and the waiver will not protect them from criminal charges or a civil suit. The same rule applies in training: an instructor or sparring partner who chokes someone maliciously or ignores a tap can be held liable no matter what paperwork the gym had the student sign.
Criminal Charges for an Illegal Chokehold
Once a chokehold falls outside a protected context, the criminal exposure is serious. The exact charge depends on the outcome and the state.
- Assault or battery. Applying a chokehold without justification usually meets the elements of assault, even without serious injury. Some states have specific obstruction-of-breathing statutes that treat any intentional compression of the throat or neck as a standalone crime.
- Aggravated assault. If the chokehold causes serious injury, such as loss of consciousness, brain damage, or broken cartilage, prosecutors can upgrade the charge. Using a technique known to be potentially lethal can itself be an aggravating factor.
- Manslaughter or homicide. When a chokehold kills someone, charges can range from involuntary manslaughter to murder depending on the circumstances and the defendant’s apparent intent.
Police officers in states that have criminalized law enforcement chokeholds face additional exposure. Some state laws specifically make an officer’s use of a chokehold that causes serious injury or death a felony carrying years in prison, separate from the general assault statutes that apply to everyone else.
Civil Lawsuits After a Chokehold
A criminal case is not the only risk. Anyone injured by an unlawful chokehold can sue for damages, and the person applying the hold does not need to have been convicted for a civil case to succeed. Civil juries decide on a preponderance of the evidence, a lower bar than the criminal beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard.
Against a police officer, federal law lets an injured person sue state and local officials who violated their constitutional rights while on duty.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1983 – Civil Action for Deprivation of Rights Recoverable damages include medical costs, lost income, pain and suffering, and emotional distress. The city or county can also be liable if the chokehold reflected a failure in training, supervision, or policy. Settlements in high-profile chokehold death cases have reached the millions.
Against a civilian, the injured person can bring a personal injury claim. If the chokehold caused death, the family can file a wrongful death suit seeking funeral expenses, lost financial support, and emotional damages.
The Duty to Get Medical Help
Anyone who applies a neck restraint has a duty to watch for medical distress and get help fast. For police, someone who has been choked and is losing consciousness, struggling to breathe, or becoming unresponsive belongs at a hospital, not in a jail intake room. Choosing lockup over the emergency room in that situation can become a separate civil rights violation on top of the chokehold itself.
The same principle reaches civilians. If you used a chokehold in self-defense and the other person went unconscious, call for medical help immediately. Failing to do so can undercut a self-defense claim and, if the person dies, can be treated as evidence of reckless indifference in both a criminal prosecution and a civil suit.