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ST. LOUIS — The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a summary judgment ruling in favor of the Missouri State Highway Patrol involving a protester who was ordered to leave a pedestrian sidewalk overpass because his activities allegedly contributed to accidents on Interstate 70 below.
According to the ruling filed Oct. 17, Jimmy Duane Weed had claimed that his First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated when state troopers asked protesters to disperse from the St. Charles overpass during an Aug. 17, 2013, protest.
The ruling does not specify what protest Weed and others were involved in other than they held signs "protesting the President's policies."
On that date, traffic was more congested than normal, the ruling states, with the highway's left lane closed for construction and a festival taking place nearby.
"The traffic approaching the protest was heavy and intermittently congested, backing up to the next exit," the ruling states.
There were five accidents on a stretch of highway approaching protesters, according to the ruling. After the fourth accident, a driver and passenger said the "crash occurred because too many people were looking up at the protesters and not paying attention to the road," the ruling states.
Weed was arrested after refusing to comply with an order to disperse.
The 8th Circuit panel that included Judges Steven Colloton, William Duane Benton and John Gerrard found Weed's argument that his First Amendment right was violated to be overbroad.
"On the facts here, any restraint on Weed's speech resulted from (a) St. Charles ordinance," not a Missouri statute and was not unconstitutional as applied, the panel held.
The panel also was unconvinced by Weed's Fourth Amendment argument.
"Weed resisted the order to disperse — an order that a reasonable officer could consider proper under preexisting law," the ruling states.
The ruling also noted that a week after Weed was arrested, he returned to the same overpass for another protest and was not arrested. He has since attended many other overpass protests, according to the ruling.