Texas police threw a journalist in jail for doing her job. Today, the highest court in the land granted her petition for review and directed the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reconsider her case in light of its earlier ruling.
Represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Priscilla Villarreal’s case has deep implications for free speech, a free press, and government accountability. Americans shouldn’t be jailed for asking public officials a question, and government officials shouldn’t get a free pass when they violate our fundamental rights.
“I’m grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision,” said Priscilla. “It has been a challenging seven years since Laredo officials attempted to silence me, and this marks a significant step toward rectifying the wrongs I have faced.”
Priscilla, described by The New York Times as “arguably the most influential journalist in Laredo,” covers local crime, traffic, and other news for her 200,000 Facebook followers. Like all good journalists, she’s not shy about criticizing government officials. That’s why she’s been repeatedly targeted by them. The district attorney even took her behind closed doors to chastise her for her reporting.
In 2017, police dusted off a decades-old statute local officials had never used before to criminalize Priscilla’s journalism. The alleged crime? She asked a Laredo police officer to confirm facts about a high-profile suicide and a fatal car accident, facts the officer freely shared and Villarreal published to her hundreds of thousands of readers.
But asking government officials questions is no crime. It’s something reporters do every day — and is something the First Amendment squarely protects. So Priscilla sued the police and prosecutors who engineered her arrest for violations of her First and Fourth Amendment rights.
