A citizen journalist who was excluded from a press conference because the police deemed him not "media" had his constitutional rights violated and can sue, a judge ruled this month. The decision serves as a reminder that a job in legacy media does not entitle you to a stronger set of free speech protections.
Justin Pulliam—whose YouTube channel Corruption Report does not shy away from criticizing law enforcement—was removed from a Texas press conference in July 2021 at the behest of Fort Bend County Sheriff Eric Fagan, who told a deputy to keep Pulliam away under threat of arrest. That violated the First Amendment, concluded U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew M. Edison, in such a clear way that Fagan should not receive qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that dooms federal lawsuits against state and local government employees if the way those public servants allegedly violated the law was not "clearly established" at the time of the violation.
