Gabriel Olivier is a street preacher who sometimes preached on the sidewalks near an amphitheater in Brandon, Mississippi, where large crowds could often be found. In 2019, the city adopted an ordinance requiring all individuals or groups engaging in “protests” or “demonstrations” at around the time events were scheduled to stay within a “designated protest area.” In 2021, Olivier returned to the amphitheater in Brandon. He checked out the designated protest area and, after realizing it was a remote and isolated space, returned to his original spot near the amphitheater. Olivier was arrested for violating the ordinance, pleaded no contest in municipal court, paid the fine, and served no prison time.
Because he still wanted to preach near the amphitheater, Olivier challenged the ordinance under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Olivier lost at the district court level where the court ruled that Mr. Olivier’s suit could not proceed. The court followed the Heck v. Humphrey doctrine, which bars suits that “collateral[ly] attack” the old conviction, thereby giving rise to “parallel litigation” respecting prior conduct and risking “conflicting” judgments over how that conduct was prosecuted or punished. Mr. Olivier lost again at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, creating a deep split with the Ninth and Tenth Circuits, which do not apply the Heck reasoning for relief in the same way as the Fifth Circuit did.
CLS’ Center for Law & Religious Freedom filed an amicus brief in September urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the lower court decisions and allow Mr. Olivier’s case to proceed.
