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June 20, 2024
Via per curiam (with lots of separate opinions), SCOTUS reverses Fifth Circuit's approach to retaliatory arrest claim
The Supreme Court this morning handed down a short per curiam opinion today in Gonzalez v. Trevino, No. 22-1025 (S. Ct. June 20, 2024) (available here). That opinion runs less than five full pages and starts this way:
In Nieves v. Bartlett, 587 U.S. 391, 402 (2019), this Court held that, as a general rule, a plaintiff bringing a retaliatory-arrest claim “must plead and prove the absence of probable cause for the arrest.” At the same time, we recognized a narrow exception to that rule. The existence of probable cause does not defeat a plaintiff ’s claim if he produces “objective evidence that he was arrested when otherwise similarly situated individuals not engaged in the same sort of protected speech had not been.” Id., at 407. We granted certiorari in this case to consider whether the Fifth Circuit properly applied these principles. It did not. We therefore vacate that court’s judgment and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Three Justices (Alito, Kavanaugh and Jackson) authored concurring opinons of various lengths, and Justice Thomas authored a solo dissent.
June 20, 2024 at 10:29 AM | Permalink
Comments
Given the current pattern of assigned opinions from March (11 cases with two justices already having a second opinion from March), it seems likely that one of the justices in the majority originally had this opinion before it became a per curiam. Anybody have any thoughts on which justice originally had this case?
Posted by: tmm | Jun 20, 2024 5:21:23 PM
I am so glad that the Court granted Cert. in this case and reached out to make things right for this elderly woman, who appears to have suffered serious retaliation by the Mayor, Police Chief and City Manager and that rogue attorney/ investigator, who provided the affidavit to get her arrested. Taking their depositions could be a lot of fun.
Posted by: Jim Gormley | Jun 23, 2024 1:57:37 AM
