Federal court ruling in Louisiana puts protesters, activist groups at risk

An unnamed Baton Rouge officer is seeking damages against activist DeRay Mckesson on claims that Mckesson’s “negligent” organization of a 2016 protest resulted in the officer being injured by a suspect who remains unidentified.

An anonymous Louisiana police officer’s lawsuit against a prominent Black Lives Matter activist has been furthered after a federal appellate court last week upheld that if a person sustains injuries due to a demonstrator’s actions during a protest, the victim may sue the organizer of the protest for negligence.

The unnamed Baton Rouge officer is seeking damages against activist DeRay Mckesson on claims that Mckesson’s “negligent” organization of a 2016 protest following the death of Alton Sterling resulted in the officer being injured by a rock thrown by a suspect who remains unidentified, Reuters reported.

The court on June 16 ruled that because Mckesson’s plans for the demonstration reportedly included the state crime of blocking off a public highway, violence against police was foreseeable, per the report.

This is the Fifth Circuit’s latest action to further the case after it was initially struck down in 2017 by a federal district court, as previously reported by theGrio.

As previously reported, the case was revived by the Fifth Circuit in 2019 only to be voided in 2020 by the Supreme Court, who ruled 7-1 that it needed further review by the Louisiana Supreme Court due to “novel issues of state law.”

According to Reuters, Louisiana Supreme Court justices have since ruled that organizers may legally be responsible for how protesters act under state tort law, opening the door for the Fifth Circuit’s latest ruling.

Critics of the lawsuit have deemed it inconsistent with basic principles of free speech.

Following the Supreme Court’s voiding of the case in 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union’s national legal director David Cole stated: “The Supreme Court has long recognized that peaceful protesters cannot be held liable for the unintended, unlawful actions of others.” 

“If the law had allowed anyone to sue leaders of social justice movements over the violent actions of others, there would have been no civil rights movement,” he added. “The lower court’s ruling is a threat to the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans.”

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