WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by a Texas online citizen journalist who said she was wrongfully arrested in a case that has attracted the attention of national media organizations and free speech advocates.
The justices have upheld a divisive federal appeals court ruling that journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as “La Gordiloca,” cannot sue police and other officials over her arrest for seeking and obtaining nonpublic information from police.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, writing: “Clearly, this arrest violated the First Amendment.”
The high court had previously directed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Villareal’s case in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in a separate Texas case. In June 2024, a judge gave a former local elected official another chance to sue, claiming she too had been wrongfully arrested.
In this case, Sylvia Gonzalez, a former city council member in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hill, said she was retaliated against for a dispute with a political opponent.
But the Fifth Circuit largely upheld its earlier ruling, and this time the justices declined to intervene without explanation. “The Fifth Circuit went the extra mile to give officers the freedom to make routine news reporting a felony,” Villareal’s attorneys wrote in their Supreme Court appeal.
A state judge previously dismissed the criminal case against Villareal, saying the 2017 law used to arrest her was unconstitutional. She then sought to sue the officials for damages. The 5th Circuit ruled 9-7 that Villarreal officials sued in Laredo and Weber counties were entitled to legal immunity.
Villarreal sought out and obtained from a police officer the identities of a man who committed suicide in a car accident and his family, and posted the information on Facebook. The arrest affidavit said she sought the information to gain Facebook followers.
