The Supreme Court has made a significant decision regarding the lawsuit filed by a Texas-based online citizen journalist who claimed she was wrongly arrested. The journalist, known as La Gordiloca, sought and obtained nonpublic information from police, leading to her arrest. This case garnered attention from national media organizations and free speech advocates.
The federal appeals court's ruling, which stated that La Gordiloca could not sue police officers and other officials over her arrest, has been overturned by the Supreme Court. The justices have instructed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reexamine the case in light of a similar ruling made in June in another Texas case.
In the previous case, Sylvia Gonzalez, a former city council member in Castle Hills, San Antonio, alleged that she was wrongly arrested in retaliation during a dispute with a political rival. The Supreme Court's decision in that case allowed Gonzalez to pursue her lawsuit.
Following her arrest in 2017, a state judge dismissed the criminal case against La Gordiloca, deeming the law used for her arrest as unconstitutional. Subsequently, she sought to sue the officials involved for damages. However, the full 5th Circuit ruled 9-7 that the officials in Laredo and Webb County were protected by legal immunity.
La Gordiloca had obtained information from a police officer regarding a person who committed suicide and a family involved in a car accident, which she then published on Facebook. The arrest affidavit indicated that she sought this information to increase her following on the social media platform.
