About this episode

The episode discusses a recent Supreme Court decision regarding protest rights and its implications.

We're live at WashU Law's Admitted Students Day! After catching up on some shadow docket activity, we dig into Olivier v. City of Brandon, the Court's unanimous March 2026 decision by Justice Kagan. A Mississippi street preacher pleads no-contest to violating an amphitheater protest-zone ordinance, pays his $304 fine, then sues under §1983 to stop future enforcement — and the Fifth Circuit says the puzzling Heck v. Humphrey rule bars the whole thing. We work through why Heck is stranger than it first appears, what the Court got right in resolving the circuit split, and what the decision reveals about the ongoing mess at the intersection of §1983 and habeas.

People in this episode

Hosts: Will Baude, Dan Epps

Topics covered

• Supreme Court decisions
• First Amendment
• protest rights
• legal analysis
• habeas corpus
• §1983

Keywords

• Supreme Court
• Olivier v. City of Brandon
• protest-zone ordinance
• §1983
• Heck v. Humphrey
• Fifth Circuit
• Justice Kagan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: City of Brandon, WashU Law

Books & works: Heck v. Humphrey

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