Villarreal v. City of Laredo, et al.: Journalism is not a Crime

Villarreal v. City of Laredo Complaint

Priscilla is a citizen journalist who has gained a loyal following on social media because of her unfiltered reporting on local matters, including police and government conduct (and misconduct). Desperate to silence her, local officials dug up a statute—never used by local authorities in the law’s 23-year history—to arrest Priscilla for asking a police officer to confirm information she had already received from other sources.

Asking public servants for information is something thousands of journalists and other citizens do every day. And it is something the First Amendment obviously protects, as decisions from the Supreme Court make clear. But Laredo tried to criminalize Villarreal’s exercise of this essential First Amendment right.

After Priscilla sued, the police officers and district attorneys who orchestrated her arrest raised the defense of qualified immunity, a doctrine that shields government officials from accountability when they violate constitutional rights. The district court dismissed the case, finding defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. On August 12, 2022, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed and denied qualified immunity to Laredo’s officers, finding the arrest was an obvious constitutional violation. Judge James Ho, writing for the majority, succinctly explained, “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.”

The Fifth Circuit, at the government officials’ request, elected to vacate the original panel’s opinion and rehear the case en banc, meaning all 16 then-active judges would consider Priscilla’s constitutional claims. On January 25, 2023, FIRE argued the case in New Orleans on Priscilla’s behalf. Almost a year later, the Fifth Circuit granted the government officials qualified immunity in a splintered 9-7 decision, with four separate dissenting opinions. 

On April 22, 2024, FIRE filed a petition for writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to hear Priscilla’s case. And on October 15, 2024, the Supreme Court granted Priscilla’s petition, vacated the Fifth Circuit’s 9-7 decision, and sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit for it to consider Priscilla’s lawsuit in light of Gonzalez v. Trevino, a June 2024 Supreme Court decision. In Gonzalez, the Court affirmed that probable cause does not bar a First Amendment retaliatory arrest lawsuit when a speaker has evidence that officials selectively enforced a criminal law against the speaker.

Priscilla is standing up for all citizens who want to exercise their First Amendment right to seek information from government officials and contribute to a well-informed public, free from fear that officials will abuse the laws to try to silence their detractors.