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The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that protected Texas law enforcement officers from liability in the arrest of a local citizen journalist who sought information from a police source.
The case involves journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known to her readers in Laredo, Texas, as “Lagordiloca.” It raises important questions about the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press versus the doctrine of qualified immunity, which offers legal protections to police and other government officials, CBS News reported.
Villarreal’s challenge garnered attention from various reporters, major news organizations, and journalism nonprofits, all arguing that the right to seek information from public officials is essential to the practice of journalism.
In its short order, the Supreme Court overturned the lower court ruling that shielded the police officers involved in her arrest while mandating further proceedings at the lower court level.
Villarreal stated in response to the high court’s order that the ruling “marks a significant step toward rectifying the wrongs I have faced.”
JT Morris, an attorney with The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which is representing Villarreal, hailed the ruling.
“This case is vital for free speech, a free press, and ensuring officials are accountable when they trample the First Amendment,” he said.
Villarreal has been referred to as the “most influential journalist” in Laredo, where she shares information about local crime, traffic, and other news on her Facebook page, “Lagordiloca News.” Her reporting has occasionally upset local government officials, including those in the Laredo Police Department, according to court documents, CBS News noted.
In 2017, their frustrations came to a head. Villarreal published two news reports based on tips from local citizens: one identified a U.S. Border Patrol agent who died by suicide, and the other detailed a fatal traffic accident involving a Houston family. For both stories, she reached out to a Laredo police officer who confirmed the information prior to its publication on her Facebook page.
Months later, Villarreal was arrested for allegedly violating a state law that makes it a felony to solicit or receive information from a government official that has not been made public, if done with the intent to gain a benefit.
According to her lawyers, the statute has never been enforced in its 23 years on the books.
Villarreal turned herself in, and the criminal charges were dismissed after a local judge ruled that the law was unconstitutionally vague. She subsequently filed a lawsuit against the police and prosecutors involved in her arrest, claiming her First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated.
The officials attempted to have the case dismissed, asserting that they had qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects public officials from lawsuits related to their job conduct unless they violate clearly established constitutional rights. A federal district court agreed with that defense, but the decision was overturned by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
“If the First Amendment means anything, it surely means that a citizen journalist has the right to ask a public official a question, without fear of being imprisoned,” Judge James Ho, appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote for the three-judge panel. “Yet that is exactly what happened here: Priscilla Villarreal was put in jail for asking a police officer a question. If that is not an obvious violation of the Constitution, it’s hard to imagine what would be.”
CBS noted, “But the full slate of judges from the 5th Circuit reheard Villarreal’s case and in January voted 9-7 to uphold the district court’s dismissal.”
Ho, in dissent, wrote the majority’s reasoning was “a recipe for public officials to combine forces with state or local legislators to do — whatever they want to do. It’s a level of blind deference and trust in government power our Founders would not recognize.”
