After protests against alleged police brutality across the United States since Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Mo., last year, public opinion is divided about the Black Lives Matter movement. To many, the activists are shedding light on a problem endemic to many interactions between African Americans and law enforcement; to others Black Lives Matter promotes violence or is even a ‘‘terrorist group.’’

This battle now comes to a quite unusual battleground: Minnesota’s Mall of America — the largest mall in America, which has now sued the group and individual activists to prevent a Black Lives Matter protest planned there for Wednesday.

‘‘Mall of America supports BLM’s First Amendment right to free expression, but courts have clearly ruled that right may not be exercised on private property without the consent of the property owner,’’ a request for a temporary restraining order filed in Hennepin County read. The judge in the case has yet to make a decision.

‘‘The people have a right to show up, we have a right to say what our message is, we have a right to speak out,’’ Miski Noor, an organizer named in the suit, told Minnesota Public Radio. ‘‘And us not showing up and us not speaking would be the mall winning, yet again, as corporations and police departments and the institutions collude to silence us.’’

Washington Post