In orders issued before today’s arguments, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a citizen journalist who was arrested in 2017 for seeking information from a police department source in Laredo, Texas.
The decision leaves in place an appeals court ruling which found the police and city officials were entitled to immunity for their actions in the case.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s senior liberal, wrote a dissent from the court’s decision to deny the case.
Tolerating retaliation against journalists, or efforts to criminalize routine reporting practices, threatens to silence ‘one of the very agencies the Framers of our Constitution thoughtfully and deliberately selected to improve our society and keep it free.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Priscilla Villarreal, who posts her reports on Facebook to more than 200,000 followers, was arrested under a Texas law that makes it a crime to seek non-public information with “intent to obtain a benefit.” Villarreal, whose case was later thrown out, wants to sue police and prosecutors for damages.
“They decided to jail her for basic journalism: asking a police officer for facts while reporting on two news stories, facts the officer freely shared,” Villarreal attorney’s told the Supreme Court in her latest appeal.
Villarreal came to the Supreme Court once before. Last year, the justices revived her lawsuit against police, tossing out an appeals court decision against her and ordering the lower court to look at her case again. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals did so and ruled against her again.
Villarreal sought to sue Laredo officials for civil rights violations, but her case was rejected because lower courts ruled those officials were entitled to qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields government employees from civil lawsuits unless their actions are obviously unconstitutional.
