The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has now delivered a victory for Washington, D.C. police accused of violating the constitutional rights of Washington, D.C. protesters.

Mass arrests will now be easier than ever.

In a ruling Friday, a somewhat divided three-member appellate panel partially reversed a trial judge's 2008 decision that the police had acted improperly when they conducted a mass roundup of demonstrators. Activist Sarah Carr and others had filed a class action suit, alleging the January 2005 roundup violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights, in part because police hadn't individually identified wrongdoing by each individual picked up in the sweep..

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle had partly agreed, ordering the arrest records expunged. But now the appellate panel says: No so fast.

The panel members go into considerable detail about the riotous behavior of some demonstrators -- "Commander (now DC chief, Cathy) Lanier saw a number of marchers use their flaming torches to set fire to debris in trash containers along the street and the undercover officer witnessed marchers spray painting buildings and cars" -- before reasoning that police acted appropriately.

The bottom line: You will be judged by your associations if you are part of a crowd. Or, as the appellate court stated:

"Police witnesses must only be able to form a reasonable belief that the entire crowd is acting as a
unit and therefore all members of the crowd violated the law. A requirement that the officers verify that each and every member of a crowd engaged in a specific riotous act would be practically impossible in any situation involving a large riot."