Dan Epps

So let's walk through what actually happened here.

This case is about a street preacher named Gabriel Olivier in Brandon, Missouri.

The city opened an amphitheater and this guy went to set up with a group.

He's a, you know, part of some religious organization and he got a loud speaker.

And as people were going into the amphitheater, he would, you know, shout stuff like a

whores, Jezebels, really not, you know, ideal conduct and a little bit distracting to people who were just trying to go see concerts.

And so the city said, you know, we don't like this.

And they passed an ordinance saying, here's the protest area.

We can have some people protesting, but you gotta be a couple hundred feet away.

And he goes back to a Lee Bryce concert and does his thing again, does the Jezebel shouting, and received a fine of $304, got a suspended sentence of 10 days imprisonment and a year of probation.

He pays the fine.

He doesn't appeal.

Then later he goes and sues the city and the chief of police under the civil rights statute and says, I want an order that this law is unconstitutional, that it can't be applied in the future.

It violates my First Amendment rights.

And the lower courts both said, no, this is barred by the Heck versus Humphrey rule we were just talking about.

Including the Fifth Circuit.

The Fifth Circuit is, you know, one of the most conservative, maybe the most conservative federal circuit court, federal appellate court.

But that court denied rehearing.

So that's when the full court considers whether to rehear the initial decision by a very close nine to eight vote.

And we had dissents by two Supreme Court shortlisters, maybe the top two Supreme Court shortlisters, at least as of a year or so ago.