The AP just reported about a federal lawsuit filed against Black Lives Matter where a federal judge just ruled that Black Lives Matter is a social movement therefore it cannot be sued and this federal judge also ruled that a hashtag cannot be sued: https://apnews.com/b1a60cdffa1e46bb...Lives-Matter-is-a-movement-that-can't-be-sued
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Black Lives Matter is a social movement, like the tea party or the civil rights movement, and therefore cant be sued, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
A police officer anonymously sued Black Lives Matter and DeRay Mckesson, a prominent activist in the movement, after being injured by a rock thrown during a protest over a deadly police shooting in Baton Rouge last year.
But U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson dismissed the officers suit and ruled that Black Lives Matter is not an entity capable of being sued.
Although many entities have utilized the phrase black lives matter in their titles or business designations, Black Lives Matter itself is not an entity of any sort, Jackson wrote in his 24-page ruling.
The judge also concluded that the officers own claims demonstrated that Mckesson solely engaged in protected speech at the July 9, 2016, demonstration, which followed the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, a black man, by a white Baton Rouge police officer.
Its clear that I did nothing wrong that day and that the police were the only violent people in the streets, Mckesson, a Baltimore resident, said Thursday after learning of the judges ruling. The movement began as a call to end violence and that call remains the same today.
The officer also attempted to add #BlackLivesMatter as a defendant, describing it as a national unincorporated association based in California.
The judge ruled that a hashtag cant be sued, either.
For reasons that should be obvious, a hashtag - which is an expression that categorizes or classifies a persons thought - is not a juridical person and therefore lacks the capacity to be sued, the judge wrote.
Mckesson and Black Lives Matter also were sued after the sniper attack by Larry Klayman founder of the conservative group Freedom Watch. A federal judge in Texas ruled on June 2 that the plaintiffs didnt provide any support for their proposition that Black Lives Matter is an entity capable of being sued. All of Klaymans claims against Mckesson and Black Lives Matter have been dismissed or withdrawn.