by Craig Donegan

About the author: Craig Donegan is a staff writer for CQ Researcher, a weekly news and research publication of Congressional Quarterly.

Yes, 16-year-old Tiana Hutchins acknowledges, she and her girlfriend were breaking the 11 p.m. weekday curfew for teenagers in Washington, D.C. But they were just walking and talking in the neighborhood, she says.

“We were only two blocks from my house when a police car pulled up,” she recalls. “He said, ‘Where ya’ll going? Ya’ll ain’t supposed to be out this time of night. I can lock you up!’” The next time, the officer warned, he’d take them in.

The incident so upset Tiana, a high school junior, that she agreed to be the lead plaintiff in an American...