WASHINGTON — Rejecting an appeal brought by Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson, the Supreme Court on Monday skipped deciding whether the leader of a demonstration can be sued for an injury to a police officer caused by another protester.
Mckesson, who was leading a protest in Baton Rouge in July 2016 following the police killing of a Black man, faces a lawsuit from an officer who was hit in the head by a rock or piece of concrete thrown by an unidentified person.
The protest was sparked by the death of Alton Sterling after an altercation outside a convenience store where he was selling CDs.
Mckesson, who is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, says his actions leading the protest are protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment, which guarantees both free speech and the right to assemble.
No justices dissented from the court’s decision not to hear the case, but liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a statement explaining why the court did not need to intervene. She mentioned a recent Supreme Court ruling raising some of the same issues that could benefit Mckesson as the litigation continues.