The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has announced that the US Supreme Court has sent a case, involving a citizen journalist who was jailed for her reporting, back to a court of appeals.
Priscilla Villarreal was represented by FIRE when she asked the Supreme Court to review her case, which the non-profit said has “deep implications” not only for free speech and press, but also for government accountability.
We obtained a copy of the Supreme Court decision for you here.
Laredo-based Villarreal got in trouble with the local police in 2017, when she asked an officer for details regarding two deadly incidents (what FIRE says was a high-profile suicide and a traffic accident), which the officer did, which she then published on Facebook to her 200,000 followers.
But the police reacted by invoking an obscure statute that was not used before, criminalizing Villarreal’s reporting and arresting her – in what she said was a bid to silence her.
The citizen journalist then decided to sue the police and prosecutors on grounds of First and Fourth Amendment violations, but the district court found that the officials she named in the suit enjoyed immunity.
A United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit panel disagreed, allowing the case to proceed, and noting in the ruling that if the arrest was not “an obvious violation of the Constitution – it’s hard to imagine what would be.”
But then, FIRE writes, “the entire Fifth Circuit decided to reconsider the ruling, and in a 9-7 decision, tossed out her lawsuit.”
And so the case reached the Supreme Court earlier this year. FIRE acted on Villarreal’s behalf when it filed the request before the country’s top court, and was supported in this with amicus briefs from over 40 individuals and organizations.
The Supreme Court ruled in Villarreal’s favor and the case will now once again be considered by the Fifth Circuit.
In explaining the decision, the court referred to another of its rulings, that in the Gonzalez v. Trevino case, where the right of Americans to sue government officials “when they retaliate against speakers by selectively enforcing statutes” was affirmed, FIRE notes.
Both Villarreal and FIRE welcomed the decision, with the non-profit’s attorney JT Morris emphasizing the importance of the case for “free speech, a free press, and ensuring officials are accountable when they trample the First Amendment.”
