Supreme Court opens door to Texas online journalist's lawsuit over her 2017 arrest

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a federal appeals court to take a new look at the lawsuit filed by a Texas-based online citizen journalist who said she was wrongly arrested in a case that drew attention from national media organizations and free speech advocates.

The justices tossed out the ruling of a divided federal appeals court that found journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as La Gordiloca, could not sue police officers and other officials over her arrest for seeking and obtaining nonpublic information from police.

The high court directed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Villareal's case in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in June in another case from Texas. In June, the justices gave a former local elected official another chance to pursue her lawsuit claiming she too was wrongly arrested.

In that case, Sylvia Gonzalez, a former city council member in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, said she was arrested in retaliation as part of a dispute with a political rival.

A state judge had previously dismissed the criminal case against Villareal, saying the law used to arrest her in 2017 was unconstitutional. She then sought to sue the officials for damages. The full 5th Circuit ruled 9-7 that officials Villarreal sued in Laredo and Webb County were entitled to legal immunity.

Villarreal had sought — and obtained from a police officer — the identities of a person who killed himself and a family involved in a car accident and published the information on Facebook. The arrest affidavit said she sought the information to gain Facebook followers.