A federal appeals court panel on Monday ruled that Lafayette County’s policy prohibiting an Oxford filmmaker and professor from using the exterior of its picturesque county courthouse at night was unconstitutional.
The opinion, written by Judge Andrew Oldham and joined by Judges Jaques Wiener and Kurt Engelhardt, said the county’s stated reason of protecting public safety was not enough to justify instituting a blanket nighttime curfew and violates the First Amendment.
“The County has not shown the curfew provision is narrowly tailored,” Oldham wrote. “Even though trial evidence showed that nighttime activity on the town square varies, the nighttime ban applies from sundown to sunup.”
The litigation began in 2020 when John Rash, a University of Mississippi film professor, applied for a permit to project art onto the exterior of the county’s courthouse. The county denied the application because it had a nighttime curfew and only allowed access during the day.
John RashU.S. District Judge Debra Brown ruled in Rash’s favor and prevented the county from enforcing the curfew. But she said Rash did not have legal standing to challenge the other portions of the county’s permit policy.
Both Rash and the county appealed to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ultimately sided with the plaintiff, in the ruling released Monday. The three-judge appellate panel went further and ruled that Rash did have standing to challenge all portions of the permit policy and sent it back to the district court for further proceedings.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and private law firm Simpson Thacher represented Rash in the litigation.
Joshua Tom, the ACLU of Mississippi’s legal director, said in a statement that Americans have the right to assemble, protest and debate the issues of the day in a public forum like that county courthouse.
“Lafayette County tried to stifle that right,” Tom said. “With this ruling, the Fifth Circuit has reaffirmed it.”
Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The county could ask the full slate of judges on the 5th Circuit to reconsider the case. It’s unknown when the trial court will schedule future legal proceedings.
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