In rulings issued prior to today’s proceedings, the Supreme Court chose not to review the appeal of a citizen journalist. This individual had been arrested in 2017 for attempting to gather information from a police department contact in Laredo, Texas.
This decision upholds an appeals court judgment that found police and city authorities were entitled to legal immunity for their actions in the matter.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s most senior liberal justice, penned a dissenting opinion regarding the court’s choice to reject the case.
Priscilla Villarreal, who shares her reports on Facebook with over 200,000 followers, was taken into custody under a Texas statute that classifies seeking non-public information with “intent to obtain a benefit” as a crime. Villarreal, whose charges were later dropped, now seeks to sue the police and prosecutors for damages.
“They chose to imprison her for engaging in fundamental journalism: asking a police officer for details while covering two news stories, details the officer willingly disclosed,” Villarreal’s attorneys stated to the Supreme Court in her most recent appeal.
Villarreal had previously appeared before the Supreme Court. Last year, the justices revived her lawsuit against the police, overturning an appeals court’s unfavorable decision and instructing the lower court to re-evaluate her case. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals did so, but again ruled against her.
Villarreal aimed to sue Laredo officials for civil rights infringements, but her case was dismissed because lower courts determined that those officials were protected by qualified immunity. This is a legal principle that shields government employees from civil lawsuits unless their actions are demonstrably unconstitutional.