Baton Rouge officials violated the First Amendment rights of activists who were thrown out of a Metro Council meeting for speaking about the police shooting of Alton Sterling after being warned not to, a federal judge ruled.

The lawsuit stemmed from a 2017 meeting held about a year after Sterling, a Black man, was killed by a Baton Rouge police officer. The week before the meeting, federal prosecutors had decided not to pursue a civil rights case against the officers involved, prompting civil rights activists to organize a “shut down the Metro Council” protest.

Michael McClanahan, head of Louisiana’s NAACP chapter, and Eugene Collins, former president of the Baton Rouge NAACP sued in December 2017. They were two of six people forcibly removed during the chaotic meeting.

The plaintiffs d

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