Ferguson protestors now have a court ruling preventing police from forcing them to keep moving even when they aren't breaking the law.
Chief U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry said on Monday that police can no longer use the five second rule to prevent the Missouri protestors from standing still in the ongoing protests that escalated after Michael Brown was killed last month.
"As it was applied in this case, the practice of requiring peaceful demonstrators and others to walk, rather than stand still, violates the constitution," said Perry. "Because it is likely that these agencies will again apply this unconstitutional policy to plaintiff and the peaceful protesters he wishes to meet with, I will enter a preliminary injunction."
Up until the ruling, police had issued numerous threats of arrest to peaceful protestors if they didn't "keep moving" - protestors who were praying, holding public gatherings, informing others of their rights, or even reporting news. Some protestors were reportedly threatened for walking too slowly.
As Think Progress reported, after one protestor was arrested for "failure to disperse," a police officer explained to an NBC reporter, "He was supposed to keep moving, just as you're supposed to keep moving."
The ruling doesn't prevent Missouri police officers from enforcing the state's failure-to-disperse law or any other law if law enforcement believe the crowd is assembled for the purpose of violence or rioting, said Perry. "Nor does this order prevent authorities from restricting protesting in certain areas or making other reasonable restrictions on the protests' time, place and manner."
Perry clarified her position, saying, "This injunction prevents only the enforcement of an ad hoc rule developed for the Ferguson protests that directed police officers, if they felt like it, to order peaceful, law-abiding protesters to keep moving rather than standing still."
