The Supreme Court said Thursday it will consider whether to revive a lawsuit from a man barred from evangelizing outside a small-town Mississippi amphitheater after authorities say he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker.
Gabriel Olivier, an evangelical Christian, says restricting him from public property violated his religious and free speech rights, but a legal Catch-22 has barred him from challenging the law in court.
Lower courts found he couldn’t file a civil-rights lawsuit because he’d been arrested, and instead needed to file under habeas corpus, a legal remedy open to prisoners. But because he was ticketed rather than imprisoned, his lawyers say that option wasn’t open either, effectively denying him a day in court.
The city of Brandon, Mississippi, on the other hand, says the restrictions aren’t about religious speech, but rather about limiting disturbances caused when he and his group yelled insults like “Jezebel,” “nasty,” and “drunkards”