The Fifth Circuit's Dangerous Obsession with DeRay Mckesson | Balls and Strikes

Theory Briefing

• The Fifth Circuit's theory holds that DeRay Mckesson, a veteran protest organizer, should have foreseen that violence could erupt at his protest.
• The case tests whether organizing a demonstration makes someone legally responsible for the independent harmful acts of attendees.
• Critics call the causal chain between Mckesson's leadership and a third party's violence dangerously attenuated and fanciful.
• The ruling's logic could expose any experienced protest organizer to civil liability simply because they knew crowds carry risk.