Supreme Court rejects appeal from online citizen journalist over her arrest in Texas
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court He rejected the appeal on Monday. Online citizen journalist based in Texas He said he was wrongfully detained in a case that drew the attention of national media outlets and free speech advocates.
The justices left in place a divided federal appeals court ruling that held that journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as La Gordiloca, could not sue police officers and other authorities over her arrest for seeking and obtaining nonpublic information from police.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, writing, “It should be clear that this arrest violates the First Amendment.”
The high court had previously ordered the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Villareal’s case in light of these considerations. Supreme Court decision In another case from Texas. In June 2024, judges gave a former local elected official another chance to continue his case, claiming he, too, was wrongfully detained.
In that case, Sylvia Gonzalez, a former city councilwoman in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, said she was arrested in retaliation as part of a dispute with a political rival.
But the 5th Circuit actually stood by its earlier decision, and this time the justices refused to intervene without explanation. “The Fifth Circuit doubled down on giving authorities free rein to criminalize routine news reporting,” Villareal’s lawyers wrote in their Supreme Court appeal.
A state judge previously dismissed the criminal case against Villareal, saying the law used to arrest him in 2017 was unconstitutional. He then tried to sue the authorities for compensation. The full 5th Circuit ruled 9-7 that the officials Villarreal sued in Laredo and Webb County were entitled to statutory immunity.
Villarreal had researched the identities of a person who killed himself and a family involved in a car accident, obtained them from a police officer, and published this information. on Facebook. He sought this information to gain Facebook followers, the arrest affidavit said.
