Washington - In a case about an animal rights activist taken into custody during a speech by Vice President Al Gore, the US Supreme Court said yesterday it would decide whether the arresting officer used excessive force and should be denied immunity from being sued.
The high court agreed to review a ruling that allowed the protester, Mr Elliot Katz, to proceed with his lawsuit seeking damages over his claim that a military police officer used excessive force during his 1994 arrest in San Francisco.
Mr Gore and other speakers on September 24th, 1994, gave a special presentation at the Presidio military post to celebrate the facility's conversion the next week from an army base into a national park.
While Mr Gore spoke, Mr Katz walked from his front-row seat to a barrier separating spectators from the Vice President. He began to unfurl a banner, measuring four feet by three feet, that declared, "Please Keep Animal Torture Out of Our National Parks."