Bill Dries reports:
Four of the 81 citizens on the City Hall escort list filed suit against the city of Memphis Wednesday, Feb. 22, in federal court alleging the city has violated a 1978 consent decree “preventing domestic surveillance of lawful and peaceful protests and exercise of First Amendment rights.”
“The actions of the city of Memphis and/or the Memphis Police Department in connection with their investigation, stigmatization, recording and isolation of the plaintiffs were undertaken solely and exclusively for the purpose of silencing, harassing, and intimidating the plaintiffs’ First Amendment conduct, and is a clear and intentional violation of this court’s order,” the complaint reads.
The action seeks to hold the city in contempt of the nearly 40-year old original decree and award unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. It also calls for an order to dissolve the list and creating no lists in the future.
Read more about the case on the Memphis Daily News.