In a decision that may have large ripple effects across the country, the Supreme Court rejected a First Amendment appeal, thereby allowing a civil suit that was brought against a Black Lives Matter activist leader in Baton Rouge, LA, by an unnamed police officer to go forward on Monday. The brief order states that DeRay Mckesson’s First Amendment appeal to the high court was rejected, and he must face a lawsuit brought by the officer who was injured during a 2016 protest after the officer-involved shooting death of Alton Sterling in July of 2016. Sterling, who was black, was shot by officers after failing to comply with their orders and after they saw Alton with a firearm in his pants pocket.
Days after the fatal shooting, McKesson organized a protest where protestors blocked a highway outside of a local police station. As police officers were clearing the roadway of protestors…
