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04/15/2024
SCOTUS Rejects Black Lives Matter Activist's Appeal over Protest Incident
The court denied that he was protected by the First Amendment
On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) allowed a Black Lives Matter activist to be sued by a Louisiana police officer injured during a protest in 2016 in a case that could make it riskier to engage in public demonstrations, a hallmark of American democracy.
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 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.
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