Source: http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2018/06/8-1-supreme-court-decision-for-arrested.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 09:58:11+00:00

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1. Please send me your legal analysis and advice to our respective five (5) local elected local government Commissions on Lozman v. Riviera Beach.
Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County.
3. In Lozman's wake, please advise your respective Commission clients to start respecting the First Amendment. Now.
4. No more misbehavior creating potential liability under 42 U.S.C. 1983.
5. No more abuse of manager staff time to intimidate protected activity, as with St. Augustine Beach City Manager's June 17, 2018 opinion column in the St Augustine Record, which was openly and notoriously posted in the City of St. Augustine Beach's June events newsletter.
6. No more disrespectful Commissioner misbehavior in response to First Amendment projected activity in meetings.
ejections of citizens exercising their First Amendment right to speak in government meetings, as at St. Augustine Beach City Commission.
The Supreme Court on Monday gave a civic activist another shot at proving that his arrest at a Florida city council meeting was in retaliation for his criticism of public officials.
The court said it was ruling narrowly for Fane Lozman, whose battles with the Riviera Beach City Council had become legendary. It said a lower court had been wrong to stop his retaliation lawsuit.
Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach grew from an attempt to cut Logan off at a city council meeting into a major free-speech showdown that carried nationwide implications for citizens arrested — as Lozman was — by government officials whom they criticize.
During the public comments of a November 2006 meeting of the city council, Lozman was talking, as he often did, about the subject of political corruption. The presiding council member told him to stop, and Lozman said he would not.
“Carry him out,” Elizabeth Wade told a police officer. Lozman was led away in handcuffs and spent hours in jail. The episode can be seen on YouTube.
Lozman was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence. A state prosecutor declined to pursue them, however, saying there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
Lozman then filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city, saying the council violated his First Amendment rights with a retaliatory arrest.
To prevail, Lozman had to show that his speech was protected by the First Amendment, that the arrest would be enough to deter the average person from speaking, and that “animus” motivated those responsible for his arrest. There were grounds for each, especially since council members had been recorded in a private meeting agreeing to teach Lozman a lesson.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which covers Florida, Georgia and Alabama, imposes a fourth factor in such a lawsuit. If the government can show there was a reasonable belief that any law was broken — probable cause — the claim of retaliation cannot go forward.
It is possible that is what Lozman was about to do, the appeals court judge reasoned, and a jury agreed. Lozman’s complaint could not go forward.
The Supreme Court years ago decided that a finding of probable cause barred a claim of retaliatory prosecution. So the question before the court was whether the same standard should be applied to arrests.
The city of Riviera Beach was backed by the Trump administration, the District of Columbia and 10 states who said that showing there was probable cause for an arrest — even if it is not for the original charge — should be the end of a retaliatory arrest claim. Otherwise, they argued, the courts would be flooded with lawsuits by unhappy arrestees who claimed the government was simply biased against them.
This was Lozman’s second trip to the Supreme Court, a rarity when the cases present different questions of law.
The first time Lozman and the city met at the high court, the justices reviewed Lozman’s claim that Riviera Beach had improperly used federal admiralty law to seize (and later destroy) his two-story, plywood houseboat, with French doors, moored at the city marina. The court ruled 7 -2 against the city, saying Lozman’s houseboat was more house than boat and that admiralty law was inappropriate for the case.
Both cases were Lozman v. Riviera Beach.
After petitioner Lozman towed his floating home into a slip in a marina owned by the city of Riviera Beach, he became an outspoken critic of the City’s plan to use its eminent domain power to seize waterfront homes for private development and often made critical comments about officials during the public-comment period of city council meet- ings. He also filed a lawsuit alleging that the City Council’s approval of an agreement with developers violated Florida’s open-meetings laws. In June 2006 the Council held a closed-door session, in part to discuss Lozman’s lawsuit. He alleges that the meeting’s transcript shows that councilmembers devised an official plan to intimidate him, and that many of his subsequent disputes with city officials and employees were part of the City’s retaliation plan. Five months after the closed-door meeting, the Council held a public meeting. During the public-comment session, Lozman began to speak about the ar- rests of officials from other jurisdictions. When he refused a coun- cilmember’s request to stop making his remarks, the councilmember told the police officer in attendance to “carry him out.” The officer handcuffed Lozman and ushered him out of the meeting. The City contends that he was arrested for violating the City Council’s rules of procedure by discussing issues unrelated to the City and then refus- ing to leave the podium. Lozman claims that his arrest was to retali- ate for his lawsuit and his prior public criticisms of city officials. The State’s attorney determined that there was probable cause for his ar- rest, but decided to dismiss the charges.
returned a verdict for the City on all of the claims. The District Court instructed the jury that, for Lozman to prevail on his claim of a retaliatory arrest at the city council meeting, he had to prove that the arresting officer was motivated by impermissible animus against Lozman’s protected speech and that the officer lacked probable cause to make the arrest. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, concluding that any error the District Court made when it instructed the jury to con- sider the officer’s retaliatory animus was harmless because the jury necessarily determined that the arrest was supported by probable cause when it found for the City on Lozman’s other claims. The ex- istence of probable cause, the court ruled, defeated a First Amend- ment claim for retaliatory arrest.
(a) The issue here is narrow. Lozman concedes that there was probable cause for his arrest. Nonetheless, he claims, the arrest vio- lated the First Amendment because it was ordered in retaliation for his earlier, protected speech: his open-meetings lawsuit and his prior public criticisms of city officials. Pp. 5–6.
(b) In a §1983 case, a city or other local governmental entity cannot be subject to liability unless the harm was caused in the implementa- tion of “official municipal policy.” Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U. S. 658, 691. The Court assumes that Lozman’s arrest was taken pursuant to an official city policy.
Two major precedents bear on the issue whether the conceded ex- istence of probable cause for the arrest bars recovery regardless of any intent or purpose to retaliate for past speech. Lozman argues that the controlling rule is found in Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v.Doyle, 429 U. S. 274, a civil case in which a city board of education decided not to rehire an untenured teacher after a series of incidents, including a telephone call to a local radio station. The phone call was protected speech, but, the Court held, there was no liability unless the alleged constitutional violation was a but-for cause of the em- ployment termination. Id., at 285287. The City counters that the applicable precedent is Hartman v. Moore, 547 U. S. 250, where the Court held that a plaintiff alleging a retaliatory prosecution must show the absence of probable cause for the underlying criminal charge, id., at 265266. If there was probable cause, the case ends. If the plaintiff proves the absence of probable cause, then the Mt. Healthy test governs. Pp. 6–10.
that might arise if Mt. Healthy is applied to the mine run of arrests made by police officers are not present here. Lozman alleges that the City itself retaliated against him pursuant to an “official municipal policy” of intimidation. Monell, supra, at 691. The fact that he must prove the existence and enforcement of an official policy motivated by retaliation separates his claim from the typical retaliatory arrest claim. An official retaliatory policy can be long term and pervasive, unlike an ad hoc, on-the-spot decision by an individual officer. And it can be difficult to dislodge. A citizen can seek to have an individual officer disciplined or removed from service, but there may be little practical recourse when the government itself orchestrates the retali- ation. Lozman’s allegations, if proved, also alleviate the problems that the City says will result from applying Mt. Healthy in retaliatory arrest cases, for it is unlikely that the connection between the alleged animus and injury in a case like this will be “weakened . . . by [an of- ficial’s] legitimate consideration of speech,” Reichle v. Howards, 566 U. S. 658, 668, and there is little risk of a flood of retaliatory arrest suits against high-level policymakers. Because Lozman alleges that the City deprived him of the right to petition, “‘one of the most pre- cious of the liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights,’ ” BE&K Con- str. Co. v. NLRB, 536 U. S. 516, 524, his speech is high in the hierar- chy of First Amendment values. On these facts, Mt. Healthy provides the correct standard for assessing a retaliatory arrest claim. On re- mand, the Eleventh Circuit may consider any arguments in support of the District Court’s judgment that have been preserved by the City, including whether a reasonable juror could find that the City formed a retaliatory policy to intimidate Lozman during its closed- door session, whether a reasonable juror could find that the arrest constituted an official act by the City, and whether, under Mt. Healthy, the City has proved that it would have arrested Lozman re- gardless of any retaliatory animus. Pp. 10–13.
KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and GINSBURG, BREYER, ALITO, SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, and GORSUCH, JJ.,joined. THOMAS,J.,filedadissentingopinion.
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash- ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.
This case requires the Court to address the intersection of principles that define when arrests are lawful and principles that prohibit the government from retaliating against a person for having exercised the right to free speech. An arrest deprives a person of essential liberties, but if there is probable cause to believe the person has committed a criminal offense there is often no recourse for the deprivation. See, e.g., Devenpeck v. Alford, 543 U. S. 146, 153 (2004). At the same time, the First Amendment prohibits government officials from retaliating against individuals for engaging in protected speech. Crawford-Elv. Britton, 523 U. S. 574, 592 (1998).
The city of Riviera Beach is on the Atlantic coast of Florida, about 75 miles north of Miami. The petitioner here is Fane Lozman. In 2006 Lozman towed his floating home into a slip in the City-owned marina, where he became a resident. Thus began his contentious relation- ship with the City’s elected officials.
In June 2006 the Council held a closed-door session, in part to discuss the open-meetings lawsuit that Lozman recently had filed. According to the transcript of the meeting, Councilmember Elizabeth Wade suggested that the City use its resources to “intimidate” Lozman and others who had filed lawsuits against the City. App. 176. Later in the meeting a different councilmember asked whether there was “a consensus of what Ms. Wade is saying,” and others responded in the affirmative. Id., at 181182. Lozman alleges that these remarks formed an official plan to intimidate him. The City, on the other hand, maintains that the only consensus reached during the meeting was to invest the money and resources neces- sary to prevail in the litigation against it.
after the closed-door meeting where the “intimidate” com- ment was made, the City Council held a public meeting. The agenda included a public-comment session in which citizens could address the Council for a few minutes. As he had done on earlier occasions and would do more than 200 times over the coming years, see Tr. in No. 9:08–cv– 80134 (SD Fla.), Doc. 785, p. 61, Lozman stepped up to the podium to give remarks. He began to discuss the recent arrest of a former county official. Councilmember Wade interrupted Lozman, directing him to stop making those remarks. Lozman continued speaking, this time about the arrest of a former official from the city of West Palm Beach. Wade then called for the assistance of the police officer in attendance. The officer approached Lozman and asked him to leave the podium. Lozman refused. So Wade told the officer to “carry him out.” The officer hand- cuffed Lozman and ushered him out of the meeting. The incident was recorded on video. See Record, Def. Exh. 505, Doc. 687, available at https://www.supremecourt.gov/media/ video/mp4files/Lozman_v_RivieraBeach.mp4. According to the City, Lozman was arrested because he violated the City Council’s rules of procedure by discussing issues unrelated to the City and then refused to leave the po- dium. According to Lozman, the arrest was to retaliate for his open-meetings lawsuit against the City and his prior public criticisms of city officials.
Under arrest, Lozman was escorted to police headquar- ters. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resist- ing arrest without violence and then released. Later, the State’s attorney determined there was probable cause to arrest Lozman for those offenses but decided to dismiss the charges.
ranged from a city employee telling Lozman that his dog needed a muzzle to the City’s initiation of an admiralty lawsuit against Lozman’s floating home—the latter result- ing in an earlier decision by this Court. See Lozman v.Riviera Beach, 568 U. S. 115 (2013). The evidence and arguments presented by both parties with respect to all the matters alleged in Lozman’s suit consumed 19 days of trial before a jury. The jury returned a verdict for the City on all of the claims.
Before this Court, Lozman seeks a reversal only as to the City’s alleged retaliatory arrest at the November 2006 city council meeting. The District Court instructed the jury that, for Lozman to prevail on this claim, he had to prove that the arresting officer was himself motivated by impermissible animus against Lozman’s protected speech and that the officer lacked probable cause to make the arrest. The District Court determined that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to support probable cause for the offenses charged at the time of the arrest (disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence). But the District Court concluded that there may have been probable cause to arrest Lozman for violating a Florida statute that prohibits interruptions or disturb- ances in schools, churches, or other public assemblies. Fla. Stat. §871.01 (2017). (The City had brought this statute to the District Court’s attention during the course of the litigation.) The District Court allowed the jury to decide whether there was probable cause to arrest for the public-disturbance offense.
any error was harmless because the jury necessarily de- termined that the arrest was supported by probable cause when it found for the City on some of Lozman’s other claims—specifically, his claims that the arrest violated the Fourth Amendment and state law. Id., at 751752. And, under precedents which the Court of Appeals deemed controlling, the existence of probable cause defeated a First Amendment claim for retaliatory arrest. See id., at 752 (citing Dahl v. Holley, 312 F. 3d 1228, 1236 (CA11 2002)).
This Court granted certiorari, 583 U. S. ___ (2017), on the issue whether the existence of probable cause defeats a First Amendment claim for retaliatory arrest under §1983. The Court considered this issue once before, see Reichle v.Howards, 566 U. S. 658, 663 (2012), but resolved the case on different grounds.
The issue before the Court is a narrow one. In this Court Lozman does not challenge the constitutionality of Florida’s statute criminalizing disturbances at public assemblies. He does not argue that the statute is overly broad, e.g., Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U. S. 1 (1949);Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc. of N. Y., Inc. v. Village of Stratton, 536 U. S. 150 (2002); or that it impermissibly targets speech based on its content or viewpoint, e.g., Texas v. Johnson, 491 U. S. 397 (1989); Cohen v. Califor- nia, 403 U. S. 15 (1971); or that it was enforced in a way that curtailed Lozman’s right to peaceful assembly, e.g., Brown v. Louisiana, 383 U. S. 131 (1966). Lozman, fur- thermore, does not challenge the validity of the City Coun- cil’s asserted limitations on the subjects speakers may discuss during the public-comment portion of city council meetings (although he continues to dispute whether those limitations in fact existed).
arrest, and even that challenge is a limited one. There is no contention that the City ordered Lozman’s arrest to discriminate against him based on protected classifica- tions, or that the City denied Lozman his equal protection rights by placing him in a “class of one.” See Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, 528 U. S. 562 (2000) (per curiam). Lozman, moreover, now concedes that there was probable cause for the arrest. Although Lozman does not indicate what facts he believes support this concession, it appears that the existence of probable cause must be based on the assumption that Lozman failed to depart the podium after receiving a lawful order to leave.
central to the case: whether the conceded existence of probable cause for the arrest bars recovery regardless of any intent or purpose to retaliate for past speech. Two major precedents could bear on this point, and the parties disagree on which should be applicable here. The first is this Court’s decision in Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v.Doyle, 429 U. S. 274 (1977). See also Board of Comm’rs, Wabaunsee Cty. v. Umbehr, 518 U. S. 668 (1996). Lozman urges that the rule of Mt. Healthy should control and that under it he is entitled to recover. The second is this Court’s decision in Hartman v. Moore, 547 U.S. 250 (2006), which the City cites for the proposition that once there is probable cause there can be no further claim that the arrest was retaliation for protected speech.
Mt. Healthy arose in a civil, not criminal, context. A city board of education decided not to rehire an untenured school teacher after a series of incidents indicating unpro- fessional demeanor. 429 U. S., at 281283. One of the incidents was a telephone call the teacher made to a local radio station to report on a new school policy. Id., at 282. Because the board of education did not suggest that the teacher violated any established policy in making the call, this Court accepted a finding by the District Court that the call was protected speech. Id., at 284. The Court went on to hold, however, that since the other incidents, stand- ing alone, would have justified the dismissal, relief could not be granted if the board could show that the discharge would have been ordered even without reference to the protected speech. Id., at 285287. In terms of precepts in the law of torts, the Court held that even if retaliation might have been a substantial motive for the board’s action, still there was no liability unless the alleged consti- tutional violation was a but-for cause of the employment termination. Ibid.; see also Umbehr, supra, at 675.
The background in Hartman was that a company and its chief executive, William Moore, had engaged in an exten- sive lobbying and governmental relations campaign oppos- ing a particular postal service policy. 547 U.S., at 252253. Moore and the company were later prosecuted for violating federal statutes in the course of that lobbying.Id., at 253254. After being acquitted, Moore filed suit against five postal inspectors, alleging that they had violated his First Amendment rights when they instigated his prosecution in retaliation for his criticisms of the Postal Service. Id., at 254. This Court held that a plain- tiff alleging a retaliatory prosecution must show the ab- sence of probable cause for the underlying criminal charge. Id., at 265266. If there was probable cause, the case ends. If the plaintiff proves the absence of probable cause, then the Mt. Healthy test governs: The plaintiff must show that the retaliation was a substantial or moti- vating factor behind the prosecution, and, if that showing is made, the defendant can prevail only by showing that the prosecution would have been initiated without respect to retaliation. See 547 U. S., at 265–266.
prosecutor to bring charges that would not have been initiated without his urging.” Id., at 262. Noting that inquiries with respect to probable cause are commonplace in criminal cases, the Court determined that requiring plaintiffs in retaliatory prosecution cases to prove the lack of probable cause would help “bridge the gap between the nonprosecuting government agent’s motive and the prose- cutor’s action.” Id., at 263.
For these reasons retaliatory arrest claims, much like retaliatory prosecution claims, can “present a tenuous causal connection between the defendant’s alleged animus and the plaintiff ’s injury.” Reichle, 566 U. S., at 668. That means it can be difficult to discern whether an arrest was caused by the officer’s legitimate or illegitimate con- sideration of speech. Ibid. And the complexity of proving (or disproving) causation in these cases creates a risk that the courts will be flooded with dubious retaliatory arrest suits. See Brief for District of Columbia et al. as Amici Curiae 511.
At the same time, there are substantial arguments thatHartman’s framework is inapt in retaliatory arrest cases, and that Mt. Healthy should apply without a threshold inquiry into probable cause. For one thing, the causation problem in retaliatory arrest cases is not the same as the problem identified in Hartman. Hartman relied in part on the fact that, in retaliatory prosecution cases, the causal connection between the defendant’s animus and the prose- cutor’s decision to prosecute is weakened by the “presump- tion of regularity accorded to prosecutorial decisionmak- ing.” 547 U. S., at 263. That presumption does not apply in this context. See Reichle, supra, at 669. In addition, there is a risk that some police officers may exploit the arrest power as a means of suppressing speech. See Brief for Institute for Free Speech as Amicus Curiae.
The parties’ arguments raise difficult questions about the scope of First Amendment protections when speech is made in connection with, or contemporaneously to, crimi- nal activity. But whether in a retaliatory arrest case theHartman approach should apply, thus barring a suit where probable cause exists, or, on the other hand, the inquiry should be governed only by Mt. Healthy is a de- termination that must await a different case. For Loz- man’s claim is far afield from the typical retaliatory arrest claim, and the difficulties that might arise if Mt. Healthyis applied to the mine run of arrests made by police offi- cers are not present here.
The fact that Lozman must prove the existence and enforcement of an official policy motivated by retaliation separates Lozman’s claim from the typical retaliatory arrest claim. An official retaliatory policy is a particularly troubling and potent form of retaliation, for a policy can be long term and pervasive, unlike an ad hoc, on-the-spot decision by an individual officer. An official policy also can be difficult to dislodge. A citizen who suffers retaliation by an individual officer can seek to have the officer disci- plined or removed from service, but there may be little practical recourse when the government itself orchestrates the retaliation. For these reasons, when retaliation against protected speech is elevated to the level of official policy, there is a compelling need for adequate avenues of redress.
lawsuit against the City. So in a case like this one it is unlikely that the connection between the alleged animus and injury will be “weakened . . . by [an official’s] legiti- mate consideration of speech.” Reichle, 566 U. S., at 668. This unique class of retaliatory arrest claims, moreover, will require objective evidence of a policy motivated by retaliation to survive summary judgment. Lozman, for instance, cites a transcript of a closed-door city council meeting and a video recording of his arrest. There is thus little risk of a flood of retaliatory arrest suits against high- level policymakers.
As a final matter, it must be underscored that this Court has recognized the “right to petition as one of the most precious of the liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights.” BE&K Constr. Co. v. NLRB, 536 U. S. 516, 524 (2002) (internal quotation marks omitted). Lozman alleges the City deprived him of this liberty by retaliating against him for his lawsuit against the City and his criticisms of public officials. Thus, Lozman’s speech is high in the hierarchy of First Amendment values. See Connick v.Myers, 461 U. S. 138, 145 (1983).
intimidate Lozman during its June 2006 closed-door ses- sion; (2) whether any reasonable juror could find that the November 2006 arrest constituted an official act by the City; and (3) whether, under Mt. Healthy, the City has proved that it would have arrested Lozman regardless of any retaliatory animus—for example, if Lozman’s conduct during prior city council meetings had also violated valid rules as to proper subjects of discussion, thus explaining his arrest here.
For these reasons, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceed- ings consistent with this opinion.
We granted certiorari to decide “whether the existence of probable cause defeats a First Amendment claim for retaliatory arrest under [42 U. S. C.] §1983.” Ante, at 5. Instead of resolving that question, the Court decides that probable cause should not defeat a “unique class of retalia- tory arrest claims.” Ante, at 12. To fall within this unique class, a claim must involve objective evidence, of an official municipal policy of retaliation, formed well before the arrest, in response to highly protected speech, that has little relation to the offense of arrest. See ante, at 11–12. No one briefed, argued, or even hinted at the rule that the Court announces today. Instead of dreaming up our own rule, I would have answered the question presented and held that plaintiffs must plead and prove a lack of prob- able cause as an element of a First Amendment retaliatory- arrest claim. I respectfully dissent.
663 (2012). But we did not resolve it then because the petitioner’s second question presented—whether qualified immunity applied—fully resolved the case. Ibid. SinceReichle, the split in the federal courts has widened. See Pet. for Cert. 12–13. In this case, we again granted certio- rari, 538 U. S. ___ (2017), this time only on the question of probable cause, see Pet. for Cert. i.
Yet the Court chooses not to resolve that question, leaving in place the decades-long disagreement among the federal courts. The parties concentrated all their argu- ments on this question in their briefs and at oral argu- ment. Neither party suggested that there was something special about Fane Lozman’s claim that would justify a narrower rule. See, e.g., Tr. of Oral Arg. 15–16 (refusing to take the “fallback position” that this “is some special kind of case”). Yet the Court does that work for them by defining a “unique class of retaliatory arrest claims” that do not require plaintiffs to plead and prove a lack of prob- able cause. Ante, at 12.
1This requirement suggests that the Court’s rule does not apply when the “policy” that the plaintiff challenges is an on-the-spot decision by a single official with final policymaking authority, like the “policy” that this Court recognized in Pembaur v. Cincinnati, 475 U. S. 469 (1986). See id., at 484–485 (holding that a county prosecutor’s order to forcibly enter the plaintiff’s clinic was a “municipal policy”).
for which the arrest is made.” Ante, at 11. Finally, the protected speech that provoked the retaliatory policy must be “high in the hierarchy of First Amendment values.”Ante, at 12. Where all these features are present, the Court explains, there is not the same “causation problem” that exists for other retaliatory-arrest claims. Ante, at 11.
I find it hard to believe that there will be many cases where this rule will even arguably apply, and even harder to believe that the plaintiffs in those cases will actually prove all five requirements. Not even Lozman’s case is a good fit, as the Court admits when it discusses the rele- vant considerations for remand. See ante, at 12–13. In my view, we should not have gone out of our way to fash- ion a complicated rule with no apparent applicability to this case or any other.
2 I am skeptical that 42 U. S. C. §1983 recognizes a claim for retalia- tory arrests under the First Amendment. I adhere to the view that “no‘intent-based’ constitutional tort would have been actionable under the §1983 that Congress enacted.” Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U. S. 574, 612 (1998) (Scalia, J., dissenting). But because no party presses this argument, I assume that such claims are actionable under §1983.
was “consistent . . . with the state of the common law at the time §1983 was enacted”).
When §1983 was enacted, there was no common-law tort for retaliatory arrest in violation of the freedom of speech. See Hartman v. Moore, 547 U. S. 250, 259 (2006). I would therefore look to the common-law torts that “provid[e] the closest analogy” to this claim. Heck, supra, at 484. The closest analogs here are the three arrest-based torts under the common law: false imprisonment, malicious prosecu- tion, and malicious arrest. In defining the elements of these three torts, 19th-century courts emphasized the importance of probable cause.
preme Courts agreed with Lord Mansfield’s reasoning. See, e.g., Burns v. Erben, 40 N. Y. 463, 469 (1869) (opinion of Woodruff, J.) (quoting Ledwith); Brockway v. Crawford, 48 N. C. 433, 437 (1856) (“[The] exempt[ion] for responsi- bility” for arrests based on probable cause “encourages . . . a sharp look-out for the apprehension of felons”). As one court put it, “How, in the great cities of this land, could police power be exercised, if every peace officer is liable to civil action for false imprisonment” whenever “persons arrested upon probable cause shall afterwards be found innocent?” Hawley v. Butler, 54 Barb. 490, 496 (N. Y. Sup. 1868).
total want of probable cause,” Ventress, supra, at 541; accord, Ahern, supra, at 150.
In sum, when §1983 was enacted, the common law recognized probable cause as an important element for ensuring that arrest-based torts did not unduly interfere with the objectives of law enforcement. Common-law courts were wary of “throw[ing] down the bars which protect public officers from suits for acts done within the scope of their duty and authority, by recognizing the right of every one who chooses to imagine or assert that he is aggrieved by their doings, to make use of an allegation that they were malicious in motive to harass them with suits on that ground.” Chelsey v. King, 74 Me. 164, 175– 176 (1882).
Applying that principle here, it follows that plaintiffs bringing a First Amendment retaliatory-arrest claim under §1983 should have to plead and prove a lack of probable cause. I see no justification for deviating from the historical practice simply because an arrest claim is framed in terms of the First Amendment. Even under a First Amendment theory, “the significance of probable cause or the lack of it looms large.” Hartman, 547 U. S., at 265. The presence of probable cause will tend to disprove that the arrest was done out of retaliation for the plaintiff ’s speech, and the absence of probable cause will tend to prove the opposite. See id., at 261. Because “[p]robable cause or its absence will be at least an evidentiary issue in practically all such cases” and “[b]ecause showing [its] absence . . . will have high probative force, and can be made mandatory with little or no added cost,” the absence of probable cause should be an “element” of the plaintiff ’s case. Id., at 265–266; see also id., at 264, n. 10 (refusing to carve out an exception for unusual cases).
effectively. Police officers almost always exchange words with suspects before arresting them. And often a suspect’s “speech provides evidence of a crime or suggests a poten- tial threat.” Reichle, 566 U. S., at 668. If probable cause were not required, the threat of liability might deter an officer from arresting a suspected criminal who, for exam- ple, has a political bumper sticker on his car, cf. Kilpatrickv. United States, 432 Fed. Appx. 937 (CA11 2011); is par- ticipating in a politically tinged protest, Morse v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Dist., 2014 WL 572352 (ND Cal., Feb. 11, 2014); or confronts and criticizes the officer during the arrest of a third party, Holland v. San Francisco, 2013 WL 968295 (ND Cal., Mar. 12, 2013). Allowing plaintiffs to bring a retaliatory-arrest claim in such circumstances, without pleading and proving a lack of probable cause, would permit plaintiffs to harass offi- cers with the kind of suits that common-law courts deemed intolerable.

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