Langford did not move to the sidewalk and was taken into custody when she tried to approach Lt. Scott Boyher to speak with him; she was held for nine hours, the opinion says. The charge of impeding traffic and failing to obey the reasonable order of a police officer was later dismissed when the police officers involved failed to appear at trial.

Autrey ruled Thursday that the ordinance banning interfering with traffic was “unconstitutional on its face” and is void for its vagueness. The law, enacted in 2012 after a similar city ordinance was struck down by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, makes the offense a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $100 to $500 and up to 90 days in jail.

Autrey wrote that the law authorizes any police officer to end any type of speech on a street or sidewalk “at any time for any reason, whether he dislikes a speaker’s message or simply wants her to hurry up.”

The opinion argued that the broadness of the ordinance means it is undoubtedly violated by everyday activities, and could apply to schoolchildren blocking a sidewalk, two neighbors who stand and converse in a residential street or a neighborhood block party.

“The ordinance applies virtually everywhere a pedestrian might be present in public in the city,” the opinion states.