WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a ruling against a Black Lives Matter protest organizer who was sued by a police officer hit by a rocklike object hurled by an unknown demonstrator, sending the case back to the lower courts.
The court also ruled that correctional officers could be held liable for making an inmate sleep in sewage, and declined to review an appellate court decision allowing an antitrust case against the National Football League and DirecTV to go forward.
In addition, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett participated in her first oral arguments Monday, asking several questions in two low-profile cases the court heard telephonically. One case involved the Freedom of Information Act and the other had to do with benefits for railroad employees.
In the FOIA case, concerning documents the Fish and Wildlife Service refused to release to the Sierra Club, Justice Barrett asked the government’s attorney how courts could determine when officials were skirting disclosure requests for internal materials.
Suppose “a government official simply stamps ‘draft’ on it…in order to avoid FOIA disclosure requirements,” Justice Barrett said. What factors could a court look at to decide if it was a pretext to withhold the document?
