The First Amendment Freedom of Expression and Retaliatory Arrest

• First Amendment Right to Freedom of Expression
• Retaliatory Arrests

The First Amendment forbids government officials from retaliating against individuals for “speaking out” (i.e., exercising their First Amendment freedom of speech rights), whether or not the persons so speaking are critical of the government.  While the existence of probable cause to arrest precludes, as a general rule, a civil suit based upon an arrest in retaliation for speaking out, an exception to this rule applies where the plaintiff’s violation is one not normally and/or not uniformly enforced.

Plaintiffs Brian Ballentine, Catalino Dazo, and Kelly Patterson, were all members of a local activist group called the ....