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NEWS JUNE 15, 2020 ¦ 11

Black Lives Matter organizer DeRay Mckesson discusses charges of police misconduct and racial tension at
The Summit on Race in America on April 8, 2019, at the LBJ Presidential Library.
Photo: Jay Godwin/Wikimedia Commons.

Mckesson was a leader of the protest but was not The ACLU joined David Goldberg of Donahue,
the person who injured the officer. Nonetheless, the Goldberg, Weaver & Littleton in Mckesson’s peti-
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled last tion filed in March.
December that the lawsuit could proceed against Media lawyer Floyd Abrams, a senior counsel at
Mckesson. Cahill Gordon & Reindel, said, “the Mckesson case
The dispute may sound small-gauged for Supreme addresses the issue of whether the organizer of a
Court status, but First Amendment advocates and lawful protest can be held personally liable for the
the American Civil Liberties Union have framed misconduct of one of the protestors. If that were the
it as a major cause. They assert that upholding the case, the right to protest could far too easily and rou-
Fifth Circuit could result in chilling the right to as- tinely be stifled.”
semble and petition by opening the door to nuisance Abrams is one of several First Amendment advocates
lawsuits against protest leaders for injuries they did and scholars who joined a friend of the court brief in
not cause. support of McKesson. The brief emphasizes that “Of-
And the case takes on new importance amid the ficer Doe is entitled to recover for his injury. But his
widespread protests that followed the May 25 death remedy is owed by the rock thrower, not Mckesson.”
of George Floyd in the custody of police in Minne- Nicole Ligon, supervising attorney of the First
apolis, which may spur similar litigation. Amendment Clinic at Duke Law School, which
When the Fifth Circuit ruled in the Mckesson case worked on the First Amendment brief, sees a con-
in December, ACLU national legal director David nection with the recent uprising. Ligon added, “To
Cole said, “If the law had allowed anyone to sue hold organizers accountable for the actions of any-
leaders of social justice movements over the violent one near the scene of their organized protest—even
actions of others, there would have been no civil when those organizers did not condone or encour-
rights movement. The lower court’s ruling is a threat age such conduct—is to risk the right to protest that
to the First Amendment rights of millions of Ameri- is essential to this country.”
cans.”
¦ Continued on PAGE 12

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