Federal judge dismisses lawsuit filed by couple over bridge blockade after Hurricane Katrina

Judge dismisses case over Katrina bridge blockade

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit over a police blockade that kept some Hurricane Katrina victims from crossing a bridge out of New Orleans in the storm’s aftermath.

U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon on Monday ruled that closing the Crescent City Connection to pedestrians after the August 2005 hurricane didn’t amount to an “unreasonable restraint of liberty.”

Vial Lemmon had ruled in 2007 that authorities did not violate Tracy and Dorothy Dickerson’s constitutional right to travel by stopping them from crossing the Mississippi River Bridge to escape the aftermath of the hurricane. The remaining issues included whether police used excessive force and whether the Dickersons’ freedom-of-assembly and equal protection rights were violated.