A ban with an exception is not a ban. https://t.co/pZN6cQrp2F— Myke Cole (@MykeCole) June 16, 2020
A ban with no authority behind it is not a ban, either.
Trump has no authority to ban chokeholds by police via Presidential fiat. Even Congress can't do that, without making the ban contingent on receipt of federal funds. As a direct matter, i.e., a ban as a matter of federal law, the act would be a legal nullity. It isn't a matter of interstate commerce. It might give rise to a civil rights action, but that's the most someone could do under federal law: bring a civil suit for violation of one's civil rights. Congress has already provided for that; there's really not much they can do beyond it.
The police power lies with the states, and that means, in this case, the power of the police to act on behalf of the state. California can ban chokeholds tomorrow, make them punishable by death if they like; and Texas can enshrine them in state law, even pass a constitutional amendment (why not? Our constitutiona is a crazy quilt of nonsense already) giving police almost absolute immunity to use them. Unless the Supreme Court decided that hypothetical Texas law somehow violated the 14th Amendment, there'd be precious little anyone outside (or inside) Texas could do about it.
Trump's ban is a nullity, an empty gesture. "Shape without form, shade without colour,/Paralysed force, gesture without motion."
And while we're on the subject of gestures without motion, please stop talking about "qualified immunity" as if it gives police a license to kill. The concept only applies to civil suits alleging a violation of one's civil rights. All you can get from a civil suit are monetary damages. How deep are a cop's pockets? They can simply file for Chapter 7 and discharge the judgment (if you get one) in bankruptcy court. "Qualified immunity" has the effect of not wasting the court's time, basically. It's another squib, a non-issue in a world where we have so many legitimate issues around policing, starting with: "What are police for?"
If your first answer is "The thin blue line between order and chaos," you may show yourself out.
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