On July 19, the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center of St. Louis, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, filed an Amici Curiae brief in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, urging the court to invalidate St. Louis County’s “Interfering with an Officer” law.
The brief was submitted on behalf of audiologist Koach Baruch Frazier and faith leader Melissa Bennett, who were arrested during a Black Lives Matter protest outside of the Ferguson Police station in 2014. It argues that Section 701.110 of the St. Louis County Ordinances, under which the two protesters were arrested, violates two fundamental constitutional principles.
“It both fails to provide notice of what activity is against the law and works to criminalize constitutionally protected free speech,” according to a MacArthur Justice Center statement.
Section 701.110 reads, “It is unlawful for any person to interfere in any manner with a police officer or other employee of the County in the performance of his official duties or to obstruct him in any manner whatsoever while performing any duty.”
The brief argues that the Court of Appeals should strike down this law, because of its vagueness and its ability to be used as a rationale for arresting people who are not doing anything illegal.
The law in question dates back to the Civil Rights Movement and was created as a rationale for police forces to shut down demonstrations in support of civil rights. Around the same time, in 1968, the St. Louis County SWAT team was formed. The brief notes that rioting and demonstrating were “apparently seen both now and then as legal equivalents in St. Louis County.”
“The historical context for the passage of this provision is important when considering its constitutionality,” said Mae C. Quinn, Director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s St. Louis office. “And we believe continuing to embrace its outdated terms and goals is wrong. Growing out of a time when law enforcement equated demonstrations with rebellions, and saw the only appropriate response as one rooted in dominance, intimidation, and arrest – Section 701.110 is out of step with modern thinking.”
Petitioners Melissa Bennett and Koach Baruch Frazier, arrested on the National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality in 2014, alleged that they had been “walking and standing in the roadway after being warned not to do so by the police officer.” Their charges were eventually dropped, but now they are filing this amicus brief to challenge the initial constitutionality of those charges.
African Americans are especially overrepresented in situations where officers make discretionary choices, the brief notes, including in charging and arrest decisions. And while Michael Brown Jr.’s killing exposed the Ferguson Police Department to the world, racially disparate policing has long been a problem for St. Louis County’s Police Department, the MacArthur Justice Center states.
Aside from ArchCity Defenders and the MacArthur Justice Center, groups who are signatories on the brief include Citizens Against Discrimination, Missouri Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, the St. Louis Chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild, Empower Missouri, the Migrant and Immigrant Community Action Project and MoKaBe’s Coffeehouse, a local hub for the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It’s our hope that the court of appeals sees the problem with this overbroad and sweeping provision, and finds that it is unconstitutional on its face,” Quinn said. “We also believe that this problem is not limited to St. Louis County – municipal courts across the region have similar laws that need to be taken off the books.”
