A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina challenging the state’s anti-riot law.
Judge Biggs determined that the anti-rioting law protects free speech and a person’s right to protest peacefully, citing, in large part, state appellate court rulings that examined the law.
“This Court concludes that the Anti-Riot Act does not criminalize a substantial amount of protected expressive activity relative to the Act’s plainly legitimate sweep,” wrote Judge Biggs in her order released June 26.
Barring an appeal, the decision upholds the enforcement of the law, allowing for the higher penalties to enacted permanently.
Republican state House Speaker Tim Moore and others supported the changes because previous laws failed to deter the rioting and looting in downtown Raleigh after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in 2020.
Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, who vetoed a similar bill in 2021, allowed the 2023 bill with higher penalties to become law without his signature. Several Democrats, along with the GOP legislators in the General Assembly majority, supported the legislation last year, raising the likelihood that a veto would have been overridden.
Judge Biggs focused on the law’s definition of a riot, which went unchanged in the new legislation.
But the ACLU argued that the definition was so vague and broad that its members or employees who participated in protests otherwise protected by U.S. and state constitutions could be “arrested and prosecuted under the Act even if their own actions were entirely peaceful.”
Details of Law
According to the law, a riot involves an assembly of three or more people that engages in or threatens disorderly and violent conduct to the point it causes injury or damage or creates a “clear and present danger” of injury or damage.Lawyers for state Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat and lawsuit defendant, along with the district attorneys, wrote in legal briefs that the ACLU was wrong to argue that its members could be prosecuted for participating peacefully in a protest.
Mr. Stein’s lawyers said a 1975 state Supreme Court opinion rejected that possibility, and a provision added to the 2023 version of the law states that the “mere presence alone” at an event where rioting takes place falls short of the evidence needed for a conviction.
The ACLU of North Carolina initially sued the state in April 2023, but it refiled the case in July after lawmakers passed another bill making additional minor changes.
The 2023 changes increase criminal punishments or create new crimes related to participating in or inciting a riot.
Fines and prison time will increase, typically by a couple of years or more, for protesters who brandish a weapon, injure somebody, or cause significant property damage. The law also creates new crimes for protesters who cause a death or incite a riot that contributes to a death.
Business owners will also be able to seek compensation from protesters who damage property equal to three times the monetary damage. Those accused of rioting or looting will also have to wait 24 hours before their bond is set.
