BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA — A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a 2-1 decision on Thursday to revive a police officer's lawsuit against DeRay Mckesson, ruling that it deserves a jury trial. The dissenting judge warned that reviving the lawsuit against the Black Lives Matter activist imperils First Amendment liberties.

The case centers on a protest in 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Mckesson organized a demonstration. Officer John Ford was injured by a rock-like object thrown by an unknown individual at the protest. Ford filed a lawsuit alleging negligence against Mckesson, though the lawsuit does not allege that Mckesson threw the object or knew about it.

The protest was organized in response to the shooting of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old Black man shot by police outside a convenience store. Mckesson is a Black Lives Matter activist who rose to prominence during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a white police officer.

The majority opinion was written by Judges Edith H. Jones and Andrew Oldham, who concluded that the case's extended litigation was sufficient to warrant a jury trial despite uncertainty about the outcome. "It is time for Officer Ford to have a jury assess his claim that DeRay Mckesson's negligence in leading a violent protest caused him to suffer injuries at the hands of rioters," the judges wrote.

Judge Carolyn King dissented from the majority decision. "Officer John Ford was tragically injured in his line of duty. Someone should be held accountable. But Officer Ford has not come close to demonstrating that Mckesson is that someone," King wrote. "In so doing, it imperils First Amendment liberties."

Mckesson called the lawsuit ludicrous and criticized the decision. "The decision was disappointing not just for him, but also for every person who cherishes the right to protest," he said. "The purpose of this lawsuit was not just to silence me, but to make people afraid to show up to protests because they might get sued for someone else's behavior."

Attorneys for Mckesson with the American Civil Liberties Union decried the decision and said they would continue to seek justice. A federal court previously ruled in favor of Mckesson in a case involving his right to protest.