Officials in a small Iowa town twice arrested a young man for criticizing the police department and saying it violates people's civil rights. Now the town is facing a lawsuit for violating his civil rights.
In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa, Noah Petersen says the town of Newton violated the First, Fourth, and 14th Amendments when the police chief arrested him for speaking during the public comment period of a City Council meeting. Petersen is represented by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning public interest law firm.
