A U.S. appeals court has backed the state of Florida on a law that expanded the definition of a riot, ruling that a lower court that interpreted the law as potentially applying to peaceful protesters was wrong.
The law says that a person riots if he or she “willfully participates in a violent public disturbance involving an assembly of three or more persons, acting with a common intent to assist each other in violent and disorderly conduct” that results in injury to another person, damage to property, or imminent danger of either.
The definition of riot in the 2020 law—officially titled the Combatting Violence, Disorder, and Looting, and Law Enforcement Protection Act—was deemed too vague by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker. The federal judge in 2021 blocked the law as a lawsuit against it proceeded….