United States Ninth Circuit

Summary judgment for defendant city and officers in civil rights action is reversed and remanded, where: 1) plaintiff alleged facts that officers booked and jailed him in retaliation for his protected speech, a violation of his clearly established First Amendment right to be free from police action motivated by retaliatory animus, even if probable cause existed for his initial arrest; 2) a reasonable police officer would have understood that he could not exercise his discretion to book an individual in retaliation for that individual's First Amendment activity; and 3) as such, defendant officers were not entitled to qualified immunity.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/08/2013
• Published 02/08/2013

Judges

• PER CURIAM

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel