Washington– The Supreme Court on Friday revived a lawsuit brought by an evangelical Christian who was banned from demonstrating in Mississippi after authorities said he shouted insults at people over a megaphone.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the case of Gabriel Olivier, who said his religious rights and freedom of expression were violated when he was arrested for refusing to take his preaching away from a suburban amphitheater. He would shout insults such as “bitch,” “jezebel” and “bad” at people, and sometimes carried signs showing aborted fetuses, the city said.
Olivier wanted to challenge the law as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech, but lower courts prevented him from suing because he was found guilty of violating it. A Supreme Court case in the 1990s found that people couldn’t use civil lawsuits to undermine criminal convictions.
But Olivier’s lawyers said he only wants to prevent the measure from being carried out in the future. They said he was demonstrating peacefully when he was arrested for refusing to move to a designated “protest area.” They argued that the legal principle affects free speech issues across the political spectrum.
The decision paves the way for him to file a civil rights lawsuit, though it does not guarantee an eventual victory. Local governments said Olivier’s ruling could have widespread ramifications by allowing new lawsuits to be filed against cities and towns.
The city of Brandon said the restrictions were not related to religion, and it had plenty of other legal avenues to challenge the law. The ordinance restricting Olivier to a designated “protest zone” has already survived another lawsuit, city attorneys said.