Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Supreme Court Greenlights Street Preacher’s Free Speech Challenge

Sunira Moses/Wikimedia Commons

The Supreme Court unanimously allowed a Mississippi street preacher’s First Amendment challenge to move forward on Friday.

Gabriel Olivier, who was previously convicted for preaching outside of a “designated protest area” at a public amphitheater, sued in 2021 to block future enforcement of his city’s rule.

Lower courts found Olivier could not challenge the city’s ordinance under the Supreme Court’s 1994 holding in Heck v. Humphrey, which prevents challenges when a judgment “would necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or sentence.”

“Given that Olivier asked for only a forward-looking remedy—an injunction stopping officials from enforcing the city ordinance in the future—his suit can proceed, notwithstanding his prior conviction,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the unanimous opinion.

“Olivier seeks neither the reversal of, nor compensation for, his prior conviction,” Kagan wrote. “And Olivier has since made clear that he has no interest in using a favorable judgment in this suit to later get his record expunged or avoid his conviction’s collateral effects.  The suit is just meant to ensure that Olivier may return to the amphitheater to speak without fear of further punishment.”

The city passed its ordinance setting a designated protest area during live events at the amphitheater in 2019. Oliver determined “he could hardly reach anyone with his message if he was forced to stay in the protest area,” according to his lawsuit.

After he was arrested for violating the ordinance, he faced a $304 fine and one year of probation, which he did not challenge.

“It is completely unacceptable that Gabe had his religious liberty rights extinguished by a city ordinance, but it is unconscionable that he was prevented from even having his day in court by a misapplied precedent,” First Liberty CEO Kelly Shackelford said in a statement after oral arguments in December. “Court decisions that prevent Americans from bringing lawsuits against laws that violate their rights endanger all of our civil rights.”