The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a petition from Priscilla Villarreal, the independent Texas journalist who was arrested on felony charges in 2017 for asking a Laredo police officer to confirm information about a fatal car accident and a public suicide. The decision against hearing Villarreal v. Alaniz provoked a 15-page dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who explains why anyone who values freedom of the press should be alarmed by the way Laredo officials treated Villarreal.
Although "it should be obvious" that Villarreal's arrest "violated the First Amendment," Sotomayor writes, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit held that the local officials responsible for it were shielded by qualified immunity, a doctrine that bars federal civil rights claims unless they allege violations of "clearly established" law. As a result, "Villarreal is left without a remedy," Sotomayor notes. "The Court today makes a grave error by declining to hear this case."
