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Supreme Court To Decide If Existence Of Probable Cause Defeats Retaliatory-Arrest Claim
Published on: Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida, No. 17-21, to decide "[w]hether the existence of probable cause defeats a First Amendment retaliatory-arrest claim as a matter of law." In Hartman v. Moore, 547 U.S. 520 (2006), the Supreme Court held that plaintiff who claims he was subject to a retaliatory prosecution in violation of the First Amendment must plead and prove the absence of probable cause. Lozman will determine whether the rule in Hartman should be extended to claims of retaliatory arrest, a question left open by the Supreme Court's in Reichle v. Howards, 566 U.S. 658 (2012).
Petitioner Lozman is represented by Pamela S. Karlan, Jeffrey L. Fisher, and David T. Goldberg from the Stanford Law School Supreme Court clinic, and Kerri L. Barsh from Greenberg Traurig. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals opinion below is here, and the petition for certiorari is available here. The Training Division provides training and other resources to attorneys appointed under the Criminal Justice Act at www.fd.org.
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