BY  :  Michael Gryboski, Editor 

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Friday that a Mississippi street preacher’s lawsuit challenging restrictions on speech near a city amphitheater can proceed, holding that prior convictions do not bar claims seeking only prospective relief.

The high court released a unanimous opinion Friday morning in the case of Olivier v. City of Brandon, Mississippi, allowing evangelist Gabriel Olivier’s First Amendment complaint to move forward.

At issue was whether a 1994 Supreme Court decision known as Heck v. Humphrey bars a lawsuit under 42 United States Code Section 1983 when the plaintiff seeks only forward-looking relief rather than damages or reversal of a prior conviction.

Justice Elena Kagan delivered the opinion of the court, writing that Heck did not have any “bearing on Olivier’s suit seeking a purely prospective remedy.”

“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,” wrote Kagan.

“The suit, after all, is not about what Olivier did in the past, and depends on no proof addressed to his prior conviction. Unlike in Heck, the suit merely attempts to prevent a future prosecution. So the Heck bar does not come into play.”

The Supreme Court reversed an earlier ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

The Brandon Amphitheater is an open-air venue often used for ticketed concert events, with a capacity of more than 8,500. According to Ordinance § 50-45, groups and individuals are heavily restricted in their demonstrations from three hours before an event begins at the venue until one hour after it concludes.

The ordinance also designates a “protest area” for those “without the necessity of pre-notice or permit.” The speech zone bars any vehicles, blinding lights, loudspeakers “clearly audible more than 100 feet from where the protest area is located,” and any objects that can give someone an elevated platform, among other things.

The ordinance permits temporary handheld signs, but they cannot be created from materials that can be used as a weapon and “shall not be affixed to anything in the protest area or otherwise affixed to the protest area.”

Olivier, a street preacher in Mississippi, was arrested in 2021 for violating the ordinance. He later pleaded no contest in municipal court and received a $304 fine, one year of probation and 10 days of imprisonment to be served only if he violated the ordinance during his probation. He did not appeal, paid the fine and served no prison time.

Because he wanted to continue preaching near the amphitheater, Olivier sued the city in federal court, arguing that the ordinance violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment by confining speakers to an out-of-the-way protest area. He sought declaratory and injunctive relief barring future enforcement of the ordinance, not damages tied to his prior conviction.

Olivier’s complaint was dismissed by a district court, and a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit upheld the decision. The full appeals court later declined to rehear the case.

In July of last year, the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments in the case.

The conservative legal group First Liberty Institute and the law firm Gibson Dunn, which are both representing Olivier, praised the Supreme Court’s decision.

“This is not only a win for the right to share your faith in public, but also a win for every American’s right to have their day in court when their First Amendment rights are violated,” said First Liberty Institute CEO and Chief Counsel Kelly Shackelford in a statement shared with The Christian Post.

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