DC’s Citywide Protest Curfew Was Constitutional, Court Affirms

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s citywide curfew in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests was a constitutional restriction on speech, a federal appellate court said on Friday.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with a lower court that the curfew was constitutionally valid because it was a facially-neutral time, place and manner restriction. The curfew was implemented in response to vandalism and looting that occurred at the same time as peaceful protest, the court said in a per curium opinion.

“Throughout our history, the people and groups that make up our fractious pluralism have shown up and spoken out. The First Amendment protects those rights. But it does not privilege expression irrespective of its timing, location, or mode,” Judge Cornelia Pillard said in the opinion, “Our Constitution provides for ordered liberty.”

Devon Tinius filed his complaint against Luke Choi, a Washington police officer, in the US District Court for the District of Columbia after Tinius and several others were arrested for breaking a citywide curfew to protest the 2020 murder of George Floyd. The group sued their arresting officers and the city for violating their First Amendment rights by enforcing a curfew.

Judges Florence Y. Pan and Harry T. Edwards joined the opinion.

Tinius is represented by the Law Office of James A. DeVita.

The case is Tinius v. Choi, D.D.C., No. 22-07047, 7/7/23.