Stinson Leonard Street LLP attorneys John Young, Jr. and Neal Griffin recently scored a win for a Missouri city in a high-profile case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Young and Griffin represented the city of Desloge, Missouri, in a lawsuit brought by the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. The suit challenged the constitutionality of the city’s ordinance that bans the distribution of pamphlets to occupants of motor vehicles by people standing in the roadways.

In 2013 the city of about 5,000 enacted the ordinance prohibiting the distribution of materials from the street out of concern that someone could be seriously injured or killed by a moving vehicle. The city hired a highway and traffic safety engineer and passed the ordinance after receiving the engineer's recommendations.

The KKK sued, claiming the city’s ban violated the group’s First Amendment rights. In 2013 a U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city from enforcing the ordinance.

On Appeal, the Eighth Circuit reversed that decision and vacated the preliminary injunction. The majority concluded the ordinance did not violate the KKK’s free speech rights, as it was sufficiently narrowly tailored to achieve the significant governmental interest in public safety in the roadways of the city and ample alternative means for communication of the message.

The Eighth Circuit agreed that the city enacted the ordinance out of concern for public safety. In its opinion, the court found that Desloge had presented evidence supporting its conclusion that persons distributing in the roadways posed a significant safety risk, both for the persons distributing and those travelling in their vehicles on Desloge's roadways. The court denied the Motion for Rehearing En Banc on March 27, 2015.

The case is Traditionalist American Knight v. City of Desloge, Missouri, Case Number: 13-3368.