Citizen Journalism

For John, BLUF:  The story is summed up in these two sentences:  "Captain Lorenzo [Die Hard 2] understood this.  The officers in Laredo should have, too….".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Right to Ask Government Officials Questions

Here is the sub-headline:

The Die Hard 2 Principle makes a special appearance

From Reason, by Lawyer Eugene Volokh, 3 November 2021, 2:39 PM.

Here is the lede plus one:

From Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho's Monday opinion, joined by Judge James Graves, in Villarreal v. City of Laredo (Chief Judge Priscilla Owen dissented and stated she "will file a forthcoming dissenting opinion"):

If the First Amendment means anything, it surely means that a citizen journalist has the right to ask a public official a question, without fear of being imprisoned.  Yet that is exactly what happened here:  Priscilla Villarreal was put in jail for asking a police officer a question.

If that is not an obvious violation of the Constitution, it's hard to imagine what would be.  And as the Supreme Court has repeatedly held, public officials are not entitled to qualified immunity for obvious violations of the Constitution….

Priscilla Villarreal is a journalist in Laredo, Texas. She regularly reports on local crime, missing persons, community events, traffic, and local government.  But Villarreal is not a traditional journalist.  Instead of publishing her stories in the newspaper, she posts them on her Facebook page.  Instead of using a tape recorder to conduct interviews, she uses her cell phone to live-stream video footage of crime scenes and traffic accidents.  Her reporting frequently includes colorful—and often unfiltered—commentary.  Perhaps because of this, she is one of Laredo's most popular news sources, with more than 120,000 Facebook followers. See, e.g., Simon Romero, La Gordiloca:  The Swearing Muckraker Upending Border Journalism, N.Y. Times (Mar. 10, 2019) ("[Villarreal] is arguably the most influential journalist in Laredo, a border city of 260,000.")….  [But] local law enforcement officials [have been] less than enthused with Villarreal's reporting….

Once in a while the Courts protect the rights of the Citizens against the Government.

I am hoping that this Court decision holds up.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff