Two women arrested in Lafayette in 2022 for protesting Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry's stand against abortion have been found not guilty of being too loud.
Sarah Credeur, 21, and Amanda Anderson, 38, were found not guilty Thursday by Lafayette City Court Judge Jules Edwards.
“These arrests were clear retaliation against women for expressing dissent at a high-profile event,” said Tulane University First Amendment Law Clinic Director Katie Schwartzmann. “The First Amendment doesn’t allow police to round up dissenting voices and physically arrest them for completely nonviolent behavior because they are embarrassing or inconvenient.”
In August of 2022, Landry was guest speaker for an Acadiana Patriots meeting inside the Comeaux Recreation Center on Bluebird Drive in Lafayette.
Credeur, Anderson and four others, part of Reproductive Freedom Acadiana, protested outside, holding signs and chanting. Online photos showed the protestors were a good distance from the meeting room with a cement area with picnic tables and a grassy area separating them from the building.
Mayor-President Josh Guillory also was in attendance at the meeting of Acadiana Patriots, a largely Republican and conservative group described by President Jim Crumling online as "a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization, made up of people of every race, religion and socio-economic level, who are dedicated to restoring our society to a more Constitutionally knowledgeable America."
Lafayette Police officers handcuffed and arrested Credeur and Anderson, charging them with violating the city's noise ordinance and being "unreasonably loud, raucous, jarring, disturbing or a nuisance sound."
“I feel vindicated today. This is a real win for the right of people to use their voices,” Credeur said in a news release. “I love Louisiana — I love our environment, our culture and our people. But not all people feel supported or valued and our state has a lot of policies that are discriminatory and hurt people. I use my First Amendment rights to speak up and try to make Louisiana an inclusive and whole community for all. I protest for my Louisiana.”
The women were defended in court by the Tulane University First Amendment Law Clinic because they alleged their arrests were an attack on their First Amendment rights to protest and free speech.
They argued that Lafayette's noise ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution by being overly broad, overly vague and an assault on the right to peacefully protest.
In July, a judge dismissed one charge, ruling the ordinance was unconstitutional on its face and violated the women's right to protest.
On Thursday, Tulane student attorneys argued that another application of Lafayette’s noise ordinance was unconstitutional because of established precedent that amplified sound is protected and that the government cannot prevent free speech without a very important reason.