The Supreme Court Just Made It Easier for Police to Arrest You for Filming Them

In Nieves v. Bartlett, a divided court ruled that individuals can’t sue police officers for retaliatory arrest if those officers had probable cause to arrest them for any crime, no matter how minor—and that’s true even if the real reason for the arrest was speech the officers didn’t like. The Nieves decision takes a red pen to the statute Congress wrote, based on some justices’ fear that police actions taken “during a legitimate arrest could land an officer in years of litigation.” Crucially, since a 1971 case found a right to sue federal officials for constitutional violations, the Roberts court has been chipping away at the ability to seek damages from federal officers.

Source: slate.com