The Supreme Court on July 3 decided to reconsider an evangelist’s stalled challenge to a protest ordinance in a Mississippi city.
The court’s new decision in Olivier v. City of Brandon took the form of an unsigned order. No justices dissented. The court did not explain its decision.
The petitioner, Gabriel Olivier, is a Christian “who feels called to share the gospel with his fellow citizens,” according to the petition he filed with the Supreme Court.
Olivier was arrested after publicly proselytizing, and then fined after being convicted of violating the ordinance in Brandon, Mississippi.
He sued the city under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, a federal law that allows individuals to sue governments for alleged civil rights violations. He sought a court declaration that the ordinance ran afoul of the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and asked for an injunction blocking its enforcement….