Unidentified cop will be allowed to sue BLM activist for injury after SCOTUS ruling

A police officer who was injured during a Black Lives Matter-led protest in 2016 will finally have the chance to get some justice thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to The Hill, activist DeRay Mckesson's First Amendment appeal was turned away by the high court on Monday, clearing the way for an officer, identified only as John Doe, to file a lawsuit against the BLM leader.

The protest during which the officer was injured happened in the days after the police shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Mckesson had organized a protest that blocked a highway outside of the police station, which ultimately resulted in the unnamed officer being hit with a "rock-like object."

The injury, according to reports, caused the officer brain trauma issues, among other issues, according to court documents filed in the lawsuit.

SCOTUS refuses to take up an appeal from DeRay Mckesson, whom the 5th Circuit has held liable for the violent actions of a random protester during a Black Lives Matter demonstration. But as Sotomayor points out, proceedings in the lower court are ongoing. https://t.co/nJs6wh4FQq pic.twitter.com/0KHVKMk1Uh

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 15, 2024

The Hill noted:

Mckesson did not throw the object, and it is undisputed that he never authorized the violence. But the officer claims that Mckesson’s leadership at the event still makes him liable for the unidentified culprit’s actions.

The BLM leader had already lost his First Amendment appeal attempt in lower courts, which forced the issue to SCOTUS to finally decide.

Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a statement in the wake of the Supreme Court refusing to acknowledge the BLM leader's appeal, calling it "unfathomable."

"It is unfathomable under this Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence that a State would hold a protest leader liable in damages for a third party’s independent conduct that the leader himself neither incited, directed, authorized, nor ratified," ACLU lawyers wrote.

Lawyers for the police officer issued their own statement, arguing that the First Amendment, when it rises to the level of violence, needs to be contained.

"There is nothing un-American or unconstitutional about chilling speech designed specifically and effectively to engage police officers, where time after time the time, the place and manner of the speech has resulted in looting, property destruction, business closures, personal injury, economic loss, bystander and police injury," his lawyers wrote.

They added, "The time, place and manner of delivering First Amended protected speech matters."

Further details regarding the unidentified Louisiana police officer's lawsuit against Mckesson were unavailable.