The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled last week that the federal courts lack jurisdiction to declare the arrest of Maurice Wells Jr. at a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Alamance County unconstitutional.
Wells alleged he was racially discriminated against when he was arrested by Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson and charged with disorderly conduct and failure to disperse at a July 11, 2020 protest over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Wells was convicted of both charges in March 2021, and has appealed for a new trial before the Alamance County Superior Court, which remains pending.
In his lawsuit, Wells requested a declaration from the federal courts that Johnson violated his First Amendment rights.
Wells was arrested following an argument with supporters of Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County, a neo-Confederate group, as the BLM protesters demanded the removal of a Confederate statue at the county courthouse in Graham. His initial complaint, filed with the Alamance County Superior Court, says that members of ACTBAC, as the group is known, who also refused the sheriff’s order to disperse were not arrested.
“The plaintiff, Mr. Wells, was deprived of his constitutional rights of free speech and assembly by the defendant, Sheriff Johnson,” his attorneys wrote. “Sheriff Johnson’s actions are evidence of a practice or policy to disfavor the speech of people of color when applying and enforcing the law in Alamance County.”
In a response to the complaint, attorneys for Johnson wrote that he believed Wells to be “inciting a fight” at the protest and denied that his civil rights were violated. Johnson arrested Wells as he continuously rang the courthouse bell and refused to disperse when ordered, testifying at trial that he told Wells, “Son, quit ringing the bell or you’re going to jail. It’s time to disperse.”
“It is denied that Plaintiff’s arrest was part of a pattern and practice in which ACSO suppressed the rights of protesters to speak on matters of public concern following the death of George Floyd in May, 2020,” lawyers for Johnson wrote.
On Aug. 12, a Fourth Circuit panel made up of Judges Paul Niemeyer, Jay Richardson and Henry Floyd found Wells cannot be granted relief because he sought only a declaration that the arrest was unconstitutional, not damages, and failed to show that a declaration would protect him from future harm.
“[A plaintiff] must either allege or show that the preclusion is likely to help redress his injury by doing some work in future litigation. Wells does not,” Richardson wrote. “We therefore hold that the declaration Wells seeks does not offer constitutionally adequate redress. For this reason, Wells cannot seek it in federal court.”
The judges wrote that Wells did not show that a ruling in his favor would protect his rights going forward.
“Even if he again faced arrest and again sued, Wells does not say why Johnson is the defendant against whom he would need preclusion. Wells gives no reason to think he will again protest in Alamance County or be arrested by Johnson himself,” Richardson wrote. “Yet if he protested elsewhere or faced arrest from officers belonging to another agency, no preclusive effect from this case would help him.”
The appeals court vacated a district court ruling dismissing Wells’s case and returned it to the Alamance County Superior Court.
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