The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether it should revive a lawsuit from a Mississippi man convicted of violating a local protest ordinance outside the Brandon Amphitheater after authorities said he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker. 

Gabriel Olivier describes himself as an evangelical preacher and alleges the city of Brandon, a suburb in the Jackson Metro area, improperly restricted his religious and free-speech rights. 

But lower courts have ruled a legal quirk may prevent him from challenging the city’s regulations in court.

Olivier also frequently protested outside Mississippi’s only abortion clinic before it closed in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court, using a Mississippi case, overturned abortion rights nationwide. In 2021, Olivier stood outside the Brandon amphitheater, a popular concert venue, waving posters with pictures of aborted fetuses, passing out fliers and using a loudspeaker to get his message out.

Police in Brandon arrested Olivier and charged him with breaking a recently passed city ordinance that confined protests to a designated area near the theater. Olivier pleaded no contest to the charges, received a fine, and was placed on probation.

After Olivier pleaded no contest to the charges, he filed a civil lawsuit against the city seeking to overturn its protest ordinances. But a prior Supreme Court precedent, Heck v. Humphrey, places strict limits on when criminal defendants can file civil rights lawsuits that relate to their conviction. 

The city of Brandon in court papers argues its regulations aren’t about the content of the speech, but rather about limiting disturbances caused when he and his group yelled insults such as “Jezebel,” “nasty,” and “drunkards” at people passing by.

A district court and the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Olivier and sided with the city, but the Supreme Court will have the final say.  

The nation’s high court heard arguments in the case on Wednesday is expected to issue a ruling in the summer.