Walker v. City of Birmingham

On May 4, 2026, in Birmingham, Alabama, civil rights leaders including Wyatt Tee Walker and Martin Luther King Jr. planned a Good Friday protest march. City officials obtained a state court injunction banning the demonstration. The protesters, believing the injunction unconstitutional, held the march anyway. They were subsequently arrested and convicted of criminal contempt for violating the court order. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court as a challenge to the contempt convictions, raising fundamental questions about the duty to obey judicial orders pending appeal.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to uphold the contempt convictions. The majority held that court orders, even those of doubtful constitutionality, must be obeyed until overturned through the judicial process; defiance of an injunction cannot be justified as an exercise of free speech.

Whether individuals must obey a court injunction they reasonably believe to be unconstitutional, or whether they can defy it and later challenge its validity without facing contempt sanctions. The core conflict was between the rule of law and the right to protest.

The decision reinforced the authority of courts and the principle that legal remedies must be pursued through appeal, not disobedience. It sparked intense debate over civil disobedience tactics during the civil rights movement and continues to be cited in cases balancing judicial authority with constitutional protest rights.