Christian Arrested for Proselytizing Catches Supreme Court Eye

The US Supreme Court will decide when an individual can sue to invalidate a law under which they’ve already been convicted.

The issue the justices on Thursday agreed to hear centers on the scope of the court’s 1994 ruling in Heck v. Humphrey. The court ruled that a person seeking damages for an allegedly unconstitutional conviction must first show that their conviction has been overturned.

The case involves Gabriel Olivier, who was arrested and fined for violating a local Mississippi protest ordinance while proselytizing. Olivier brought a Section 1983 suit claiming the law violates the First and Fourteenth amendments.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said Olivier’s suit was barred by Heck v. Humphrey.

The justices agreed to decide whether that bar applies when the challenger is seeking only prospective relief—not seeking to undo their conviction—and when they didn’t have access to habeas relief to challenge their conviction.

The case is Olivier v. City of Brandon, Mississippi, U.S., No. 24-993.