A Texas citizen journalist who said she was wrongfully arrested for gaining nonpublic information from police had her lawsuit rejected by an appeals court Tuesday, prompting vows by her attorneys to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Citizen journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as La Gordiloca, was previously let off the hook after a state judge dismissed a criminal case against her in 2018, finding that the law used to arrest her in 2017 was unconstitutional. She filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to sue officials for damages.
Police arrested and charged her in 2017 with two felony counts of misuse of information related to her publishing the identities of suicide and car crash victims on Facebook, information that she gathered through communications with a Laredo police officer.
In a 9-7 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the majority held on Tuesday that the police officers and other officials Villarreal sued in Laredo and Webb County were entitled to legal immunity.
U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones, an appointee of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote that police officers were not required to predict whether the Texas law at issue was constitutional before arresting Villarreal.
“Mainstream, legitimate media outlets routinely withhold the identity of accident victims or those who committed suicide until public officials or family members release that information publicly,” Jones wrote. “Villarreal sought to capitalize on others’ tragedies to propel her reputation and career.”
The Foundation For Individual Rights and Expression, the firm representing Villarreal, released a statement saying FIRE “is determined to seek review from the Supreme Court on this case critical for free expression and constitutional accountability.”
Villarreal also expressed disappointment in the decision but said she is “going to keep up the fight for my rights and those of all Americans.”
The 5th Circuit is known as one of the most conservative-leaning federal appeals courts in the nation, but the ruling featured the mostly conservative court splintering in an uneven divide, with four Republican-appointed judges joining three judges appointed by Democrats to dissent.
U.S. District Judge James Ho, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, argued that if the First Amendment right to free speech “means anything, surely it means that citizens have the right to question or criticize public officials without fear of imprisonment,” according to his dissent.
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Villarreal was arrested under a statute that her attorneys claim has never been used by local authorities in its 23-year history. The law in question pertains to Tex. Penal Code § 39.06(c), (d), which involves illegally soliciting information that had not yet been made public “with intent to obtain a benefit.”
Working as an independent online reporter in the border city of Laredo, Villarreal has amassed more than 120,000 followers on her Facebook page, where she regularly reports on local government, crime, and events.
