The Mall of America has gone to court seeking an injunction against Black Lives Matter protesters disrupting shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve day.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on the hearing held in court today:
With a planned demonstration by Black Lives Matter at the Mall of America less than two days away, a Hennepin County judge on Monday heard arguments over whether the shopping complex has the right to a restraining order against protesters.In its request, the mall named four alleged leaders of Black Lives Matter and asked Judge Karen Janisch to prevent them from encouraging people to demonstrate Wednesday and to take down any social media messages about the event. The mall also wanted Black Lives Matter to post a social-media message canceling the demonstration and to post a copy of the judge’s restraining order, if one is issued.
I’ll admit that I’m not up to speed on how 1st Amendment protections apply on a private property that nonetheless operates as a public space, a replacement for Main Street. So I express no opinion on the legalities.
I’m interested in the optics. And I like the optics of Black Lives Matter disrupting shoppers, like happened in late December 2014 (our prior coverage here):
UPDATE 12-22-2015: Only a partial victory for the Mall, via NBC News:
A judge ruled Tuesday that several local Black Lives Matter organizers cannot demonstrate at the Mall of America on the busy shopping day before Christmas Eve, but she said she couldn’t stop others from attending the protest.Lawyers for the nation’s largest mall had requested a temporary restraining order to prevent the Black Lives Matter protest planned for Wednesday, in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the massive demonstration that disrupted business and closed stores in the mall last December.Hennepin County District Court Judge Karen Janisch barred three protest organizers named as defendants in the mall’s lawsuit from attending the demonstration, but she limited her order to them. The mall had sought to block the entire Black Lives Matter group from protesting.”The Court does not have a sufficient basis to issue an injunction as to Black Lives Matters or to unidentified persons who may be acting as its agents or in active concert with the Black Lives Matters movement,” she wrote.
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