The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed a Black Lives Matter activist to be sued by a Louisiana police officer injured during a protest, opens new tab in 2016 in a case that could make it riskier to engage in public demonstrations, a hallmark of American democracy.
The decision could make it easier to sue protest organizers for the illegal conduct of an attendee, according to the report.
In declining to hear DeRay Mckesson's appeal, the justices left in place a lower court's decision reviving a lawsuit by the Baton Rouge police officer, John Ford, who accused him of negligence after being struck by a rock during a protest sparked by the fatal police shooting of a Black man, Alton Sterling.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2023 rejected, opens new tab Mckesson's defense that his rights to free speech and assembly under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protect him from the negligence claim.
Mckesson was represented by lawyers including from the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Baton Rouge protest was one of numerous demonstrations in the United States in 2015 and 2016 arising from incidents involving police and Black individuals. These predated the massive racial justice protests that flared in various cities in the United States and abroad following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The 5th Circuit's decision to allow Ford's lawsuit could make it easier to sue protest leaders for the illegal conduct of an attendee - an outcome that, according to some legal scholars, could stifle activism seeking political or societal change.
Sterling was shot by a Baton Rouge police officer on July 5, 2016, after a struggle outside a convenience store where he was selling homemade CDs. The death inflamed racial tensions in the city. The protest four days later demanding accountability took place in the area in front of police headquarters.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
Do you believe there should be a balance between the right to protest and the responsibility for any resulting harm, and if so, what would that look like?
@9LKFRTR2wks2W
People should know the penalties for causing harm. Why hurt someone on purpose?
@9LKF8FG2wks2W
I feel it's a bit targeted; however, I do believe it asks a good question.
@9LKF6FH2wks2W
An organizer should not be held accountable for any actions taken that they did not promote or allude to.
@9LKDWV72wks2W
Organizers should have some contract for protesters
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
Should protecting free speech extend to shielding organizers from legal actions resulting from protest incidents?
@9LKDSGPConstitution2wks2W
yes protest can become violent riots
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@MothDannyWorking Family2wks2W
I should have known Deray McKesson was behind the misinformation being spread about the DC crime bill. He was one of the first boots on the ground in Ferguson to subvert the BLM movement and turn it into the LGBTQIA money grab scheme that it became.
Protesting is illegal unless you have permission from the government.
In dissent, Judge Don Willett wrote, “He deserves justice. Unquestionably, Officer Doe can sue the rock-thrower. But I disagree that he can sue Mckesson as the protest leader.”
Hitting police in the face with pieces of concrete is not "free speech."
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