When YouTube journalist and blogger Abade Irizarry tried to film several police officers conducting a DUI traffic stop in May 2019, Officer Ahmed Yehia of Colorado's Lakewood Police Department blocked Irizarry's view of the incident, pointed a bright flashlight at his camera lens, and drove at Irizarry with his police cruiser.
Irizarry sued, arguing that Yehia violated his First Amendment rights. The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado ruled that Yehia had qualified immunity because he could not be expected to know that his precise actions would violate the law. The court wrote that Irizarry "failed to direct the court to a case which demonstrates that Officer Yehia was on notice that his conduct—standing in front of and shining a flashlight into Plaintiff's camera for an unknown period of time—violated Mr. Irizarry's First Amendment rights."
