social media post held not to be a true threat, in part, because it failed to "threaten[] [a] specific harm at [a] specific location[]"
How later courts described this case
- social media post held not to be a true threat, in part, because it failed to "threaten[] [a] specific harm at [a] specific location[]"
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Case: 22-30509 Document: 00516976496 Page: 1 Date Filed: 11/21/2023
United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
____________ FILED
November 21, 2023
No. 22-30509 Lyle W. Cayce
____________ Clerk
Waylon Bailey,
Plaintiff—Appellant,
versus
Randell Iles, in his individual capacity; Mark Wood, in his official
capacity as Sheriff,
Defendants—Appellees.
______________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Louisiana
USDC No. 1:20-CV-1211
______________________________
ON PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC
Before Higginbotham, Graves, and Douglas, Circuit Judges.
Dana M. Douglas, Circuit Judge:
Treating the petition for rehearing en banc as a petition for panel
rehearing (5th Cir. R. 35 I.O.P.), the petition for panel rehearing is
DENIED. Because no member of the panel or judge in regular active
service requested that the court be polled on rehearing en banc (Fed. R.
App. P. 35 and 5th Cir. R. 35), the petition for rehearing en banc is
Case: 22-30509 Document: 00516976496 Page: 2 Date Filed: 11/21/2023
No. 22-30509
DENIED. We WITHDRAW our previous opinion and SUBSTITUTE
the following:
Waylon Bailey filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violations of
his First and Fourth Amendment rights when he was arrested as a terrorist
for a post on Facebook. The district court granted Detective Randall Iles and
Sheriff Mark Wood’s motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity
grounds and dismissed Bailey’s claims with prejudice. We hold that Bailey’s
post was constitutionally protected speech, and that the grant of summary
judgment was improper. Accordingly, we REVERSE and REMAND for
proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I. Background
Bailey lives in Rapides Parish in central Louisiana. On March 20,
2020—during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic—he posted this
on Facebook:
Bailey intended the post as a joke and did not intend to scare anyone. The
“hashtag” “#weneedyoubradpitt” referenced the zombie movie World War
Z, starring Brad Pitt. Bailey included the hashtag to “bring light to the fact
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that it was a joke.” He was bored during the COVID-19 lockdown, and used
Facebook to keep in touch with friends and “make light of the situation.”
Bailey’s post was in response to another friend—Matthew Mertens—
posting a joke about COVID, and Mertens understood Bailey’s post to be a
joke. The two continued to post comments underneath Bailey’s post.
Merterns posted “lol and he [referring to Bailey] talking about my post gonna
get flagged � he wins.” Bailey posted “this is your fault” and “YOU
MADE ME DO THIS.” Another person, who Mertens later identified as
Bailey’s wife, also jokingly commented “I’m reporting you.”
Shortly after Bailey posted, Detective Randell Iles was assigned by the
Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office (RPSO) to investigate. Iles’ supervisors were
concerned that the post was a legitimate threat; Iles testified at his deposition
that he thought that the post was “meant to get police officers hurt.” Iles
looked at the post and the comments and concluded that Bailey had
committed “terrorizing” in violation of Louisiana Revised Statute § 14:40.1.
Iles had no information regarding anyone contacting RPSO to complain about
the post or to express fear, or if any disruption had occurred because of the
post.
Without seeking an arrest warrant, Iles and numerous RPSO deputies
went to Bailey’s house and arrested him. According to Bailey, he was
working in his garage when as many as a dozen deputies with bullet proof
vests and weapons drawn approached him and ordered him to put his hands
on his head, after which Iles told him to get on his knees and handcuffed him.
While Bailey was handcuffed, one of the deputies (not Iles) told him that the
“next thing [you] put on Facebook should be not to fuck with the police” and
the deputies laughed.
Iles advised Bailey of his rights, took a brief statement, and told him
he was being charged with terrorizing. Bailey told Iles that the Facebook post
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was a joke and apologized. In a supplemental investigative report completed
after the arrest, Iles recounted that Bailey told him he had “no ill will towards
the Sheriff’s Office; he only meant it as a joke.” Bailey deleted his Facebook
post after Iles told him that he could either delete it himself or the RPSO
would contact Facebook to remove it.
Iles later filled out an affidavit of probable cause for arrest without a
warrant, noting that Bailey had been arrested for “Terrorizing” in violation
of statute number “14.40.1.” Under the heading “probable cause and facts
of arrest,” he wrote that “the suspect put up a Facebook post that Rapides
Parish Sheriff’s Office has order to ‘Shoot on Sight’ due to the Corona Virus
outbreak. Arrested without incident.” Iles testified at his deposition that he
determined that the Facebook post was criminal based solely on the words of
the post itself, and not based on anything Bailey told him.
RPSO announced Bailey’s arrest on its own Facebook page, and he
was identified in news reports as having been arrested for terrorism. Bailey’s
wife paid a bond to bail him out of jail. The district attorney subsequently
dropped the charges and did not prosecute Bailey.
Bailey filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that Iles violated his
First and Fourth Amendment rights. He also brought state law claims of
malicious prosecution and false arrest against Iles and Sheriff Mark Wood in
his official capacity as head of the RPSO under the doctrine of respondeat
superior (collectively, “Defendants”). After discovery, Bailey moved for
partial summary judgment on his Fourth Amendment, malicious
prosecution, and false arrest claims, and Defendants moved for summary
judgment on all of Bailey’s claims, asserting, inter alia, qualified immunity as
to his federal claims. The district court granted Defendants’ motion and
dismissed Bailey’s claims with prejudice. Bailey appealed.
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II. Standard of Review and Qualified Immunity
“This court reviews de novo a district court’s grant of summary
judgment, applying the same standard as the district court.” Austin v. Kroger
Tex., L.P., 864 F.3d 326, 328 (5th Cir. 2017) (citation omitted). Normally,
summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant shows that there is no
genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment
as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). However, “[a] qualified
immunity defense alters the usual summary judgment burden of proof”
because the plaintiff, to overcome qualified immunity, “must rebut the
defense by establishing a genuine [dispute of material fact] as to whether the
official’s allegedly wrongful conduct violated clearly established law.” Bey v.
Prator, 53 F.4th 854, 857 (5th Cir. 2022) (quoting Brown v. Callahan, 623 F.3d
249, 253 (5th Cir. 2010)) (alteration in original). “A genuine [dispute] of
material fact exists when the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could
return a verdict for the non-moving party.” Austin, 864 F.3d at 328 (citation
omitted). “All evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the
nonmoving party and all reasonable inferences are drawn in that party’s
favor.” Id. at 328–29 (citation omitted).
“The qualified immunity inquiry includes two parts”: (1) “whether
the officer’s alleged conduct has violated a federal right”; and (2) “whether
the right in question was ‘clearly established’ at the time of the alleged
violation, such that the officer was on notice of the unlawfulness of his or her
conduct.” Cole v. Carson, 935 F.3d 444, 451 (5th Cir. 2019). An officer is
entitled to qualified immunity “if there is no violation, or if the conduct did
not violate law clearly established at the time.” Id.
For a right to be “clearly established,” “[t]he contours of the right
must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that
what he is doing violates that right.” Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635,
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640 (1987). The right may be clearly established by the Supreme Court’s
precedent or our own. Shumpert v. City of Tupelo, 905 F.3d 310, 320 (5th Cir.
2018). “The central concept is that of ‘fair warning’: The law can be clearly
established ‘despite notable factual distinctions between the precedents
relied on and the cases then before the Court, so long as the prior decisions
gave reasonable warning that the conduct then at issue violated constitutional
rights.’” Kinney v. Weaver, 367 F.3d 337, 350 (5th Cir. 2004) (en banc)
(quoting Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, 740 (2002)).
III. Discussion
We first hold that Bailey’s Facebook post is constitutionally protected
speech. We then hold that the district court erred in granting qualified
immunity to Detective Iles on Bailey’s First and Fourth Amendment claims
and erred in granting summary judgment to Defendants on Bailey’s state law
false arrest claim.
A. Bailey’s Facebook post was protected speech
Although neither party briefed the issue, the district court concluded
sua sponte that Bailey’s Facebook post was not constitutionally protected
speech under the First Amendment because it created a “clear and present
danger,” equating “Bailey’s post publishing misinformation during the very
early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and time of national crisis” as
“remarkably similar in nature to falsely shouting fire in a crowded theatre”
and citing to Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 52 (1919). Relatedly, the
district court held that “Bailey’s Facebook post may very well have been
intended to incite lawless action, and in any event, certainly had a substantial
likelihood of inciting fear, lawlessness, and violence,” citing Abrams v. United
States, 250 U.S. 616, 621 (1919). This was error. As explained below,
Bailey’s Facebook post was constitutionally protected by the First
Amendment.
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“[A]s a general matter, the First Amendment means that government
has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its
subject matter, or its content.” United States v. Alvarez, 567 U.S. 709, 716
(2012) (quoting Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union, 535 U.S. 564, 573
(2002) (internal quotation marks omitted)). The First Amendment’s
protections apply to jokes, parodies, satire, and the like, whether clever or in
poor taste. See, e.g. Hustler Mag., Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46, 54 (1988). That
said, the First Amendment does not protect all speech, nor has it ever.
“There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the
prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any
Constitutional problem.” Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire, 315 U.S.
568, 571–72 (1942). “Content-based restrictions on speech have been
permitted, as a general matter, only when confined to the few historic and
traditional categories of expression long familiar to the bar.” Alvarez, 567
U.S. at 717 (cleaned up). Two categories are relevant here: (1) “advocacy
intended, and likely, to incite imminent lawless action”; and (2) “true
threats.” Id. (citing Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969); Watts v.
United States, 394 U.S. 705 (1969))
1. Incitement
At the outset, we note that in concluding that Bailey’s post was
unprotected speech, the district court applied the wrong legal standard.
While Schenck and Abrams have never been formally overruled by the
Supreme Court, the “clear and present danger” test applied in those cases
was subsequently limited by the “incitement” test announced in
Brandenburg. See Shackelford v. Shirley, 948 F.2d 935 (5th Cir. 1991)
(recognizing the Brandenburg and subsequent cases “refined” the “clear and
present danger” test). As the Fourth Circuit has explained, the “clear and
present danger” test from Schenck and Abrams, “[d]evoid of any such
limiting criteria as directedness, likelihood, or imminence . . . applied to a
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wide range of advocacy that now finds refuge under Brandenburg,” such that
“Brandenburg has thus been widely understood . . . as having significantly (if
tacitly) narrowed the category of incitement.” United States v. Miselis, 972
F.3d 518, 532–33 (4th Cir. 2020), cert. denied, 141 S. Ct. 2756.
In Brandenburg, the Court held that “advocacy [that] is directed to
inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or
produce such action” is not protected by the First Amendment. 395 U.S. at
447. Brandenburg itself involved the broadcasting of a film of a Ku Klux Klan
rally which included a speech full of racist language in which a Klan leader
said that “four hundred thousand” KKK members would be “marching on
Congress” and that “if our President, our Congress, our Supreme Court,
continues to suppress the white, Caucasian race, it’s possible that there
might have to be some revengeance taken.” Id. at 445–46. The Court
reversed the speaker’s conviction under Ohio’s “criminal syndicalism” law
because it did not distinguish “mere advocacy” from “incitement to
imminent lawless action.” Id. at 445, 448–49. Bailey argues that his
Facebook post did not meet Brandenburg’s requirements. We agree. A
comparison with Supreme Court precedent makes clear that Bailey’s post
was not “advocacy . . . directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless
action” nor “likely to incite such action.”
For example, in Hess v. Indiana, the Court reversed the disorderly
conduct conviction of a Vietnam War protestor who said “we’ll take the
fucking street later” after sheriff’s deputies moved the protestors from the
street to the sidewalk, holding that his speech was protected under
Brandenburg because it was not directed at any particular person or group and
was not likely to cause imminent unlawful action. 414 U.S. 105, 106–08
(1973). Consistent with Brandenburg’s imminency requirement, the Court
explained that speech that “amounted to nothing more than advocacy of
illegal action at some indefinite future time” was not unprotected incitement.
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Id. at 108. The Court also seemed to doubt that the speech at issue was even
“advocacy” as contemplated by Brandenburg: “Since the uncontroverted
evidence showed that Hess’ statement was not directed to any person or
group of persons, it cannot be said that he was advocating, in the normal
sense, any action.” Id. at 108–09. And the Court explained that even
language that had a “tendency to lead to violence” was protected by the First
Amendment because such language did not meet the stringent bar for words
“intended to produce, and likely to produce, imminent disorder.” Id. at 109;
see also Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coal., 535 U.S. 234, 253 (2002) (“The mere
tendency of speech to encourage unlawful acts is not a sufficient reason for
banning it.”).
Applying the Supreme Court’s incitement precedents, our court has
emphasized that “encouragement of conduct that might harm the public
such as the violation of law or the use of force” is protected by the First
Amendment unless it is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless
action” and is “likely to incite or produce such action.” Herceg v. Hustler
Mag., Inc., 814 F.2d 1017, 1021–22 (5th Cir. 1987). “The crucial element to
lowering the [F]irst [A]mendment shield is the imminence of the threatened
evil.” Id. at 1022.
The Brandenburg requirements are not met here. At most, Bailey
“advocated” that people share his post by writing “SHARE SHARE
SHARE.” But his post did not advocate “lawless” and “imminent” action,
nor was it “likely” to produce such action. The post did not direct any
person or group to take any unlawful action immediately or in the near future,
nobody took any such actions because of the post, and no such actions were
likely to result because the post was clearly intended to be a joke. Nor did
Bailey have the requisite intent to incite; at worst, his post was a joke in poor
taste, but it cannot be read as intentionally directed to incitement.
“Incitement cases usually concern a state effort to punish the arousal of a
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crowd to commit a criminal action. The root of incitement theory appears to
have been grounded in concern over crowd behavior.” Herceg, 814 F.2d at
1023. “As is made clear in the Supreme Court’s decision in Hess, the
‘tendency to lead to violence’ is not enough. Mere negligence, therefore,
cannot form the basis of liability under the incitement doctrine any more than
it can under libel doctrine.” Id. at 1024 (citations omitted). In short, where
the speech in Brandenburg, Hess, and numerous other Supreme Court
decisions does not rise to the level of incitement, in no way can Bailey’s
Facebook post constitute incitement.
2. True threats
Despite Bailey’s arrest for “terrorizing,” his Facebook post was also
not a “true threat” unprotected by the First Amendment. “‘True threats’
encompass those statements where the speaker means to communicate a
serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a
particular individual or group of individuals.” Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343,
359 (2003). In deciding whether speech is an unprotected “true threat,”
context is critical. See Watts, 394 U.S. at 706, 708 (considering the context,
the expressly conditional nature of the statement, and the reaction of the
listeners when evaluating whether a statement is a true threat).
On its face, Bailey’s post is not a threat. But to the extent it could
possibly be considered a “threat” directed to either the public—that RPSO
deputies would shoot them if they were “infected”—or to RPSO deputies—
that the “infected” would shoot back—it was not a “true threat” based on
context because it lacked believability and was not serious, as evidenced
clearly by calls for rescue by Brad Pitt. For the same reason, Bailey did not
have the requisite intent to make a “true threat.”
Comparison with a recent case also involving a social media post about
COVID-19 supports our conclusion. In United States v. Perez, we held that
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Facebook posts made in April 2020 in which the speaker falsely claimed that
he had paid a person infected with COVID-19 to lick everything in two
specific grocery stores in San Antonio was a true threat. 43 F.4th 437, 439,
443 (5th Cir. 2022). We explained that the “posts evinced an intent to spread
COVID-19” and “described actions that would have placed employees and
potential shoppers at two grocery stores at risk.” Id. at 443. Further, a jury
found that the posts were reasonably believable, and “would have a
reasonable tendency to create apprehension that [their] originator will act
according to [their] tenor.” Id. (quoting United States v. Morales, 272 F.3d
284, 287 (5th Cir. 2001)) (alterations in original). Bailey’s absurd post is
entirely different from the believable threat in Perez, which, unlike Bailey’s
post, threatened specific harm at specific locations and triggered complaints
from the public to law enforcement.
B. Fourth Amendment claim
In deciding whether Iles is entitled to qualified immunity on Bailey’s
Fourth Amendment claim, we consider first whether Iles violated Bailey’s
constitutional rights when he arrested him for terrorizing. Cole, 935 F.3d at
451. Then, we consider whether the right was “clearly established” at the
time of the arrest.. Id.
“It is well established that under the Fourth Amendment a
warrantless arrest must be based on probable cause.” United States v. Castro,
166 F.3d 728, 733 (5th Cir. 1999) (en banc). “Probable cause exists when the
facts and circumstances within the arresting officer’s personal knowledge, or
of which he has reasonably trustworthy information, are sufficient to
occasion a person of reasonable prudence to believe an offense has been
committed.” Bigford v. Taylor, 834 F.2d 1213, 1218 (5th Cir. 1988) (quotation
marks and citation omitted). “As a corollary, moreover, of the rule that the
police may rely on the totality of facts available to them in establishing
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probable cause, they also may not disregard facts tending to dissipate
probable cause.” Id. (internal citation omitted). “[T]he ultimate
determination of whether there is probable cause for the arrest is a question
of law we review de novo.” Castro, 166 F.3d at 733.
The district court determined that there was probable cause to arrest
Bailey. We disagree. Iles arrested Bailey for “terrorizing,” in violation of
La. R.S. § 14:40.1(A)(1). The relevant portion of the statute reads as
follows:
Terrorizing is the intentional communication of information
that the commission of a crime of violence is imminent or in
progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists
or is about to exist, with the intent of causing members of the
general public to be in sustained fear for their safety; or causing
evacuation of a building, a public structure, or a facility of
transportation; or causing other serious disruption to the
general public.
La. R.S. § 14:40.1(A)(1).
According to Louisiana courts, the crime of terrorizing requires
(1) “false information intentionally communicated” and (2) “an immediacy
element concerning the false information or threat that causes sustained fear
or serious public disruption.” State ex rel. J.S., 808 So. 2d 459, 462 (La. Ct.
App. 2001); see also State ex rel. RT, 781 So. 2d 1239, 1242 (La. 2001)
(“Moreover, causation of ‘sustained fear’ is clearly an essential element of
this part of the statute.”). The statute also requires (3) “specific intent . . .
i.e., the intent to cause members of the general public to be in sustained fear
for their safety, or to cause evacuation of a public building, a public structure,
or a facility of transportation, or to cause other serious disruption to the
general public.” State v. Lewis, 43 So. 3d 973, 985 (La. Ct. App. 2001).
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The relevant facts and circumstances known to Iles at the time of the
arrest were: (1) his supervisors asked him to investigate the post; (2) the
content of the post itself; (3) Bailey was the author; (4) the comments below
the post; (5) Bailey’s statement to Iles that he meant the post as a joke and
had no ill will toward RPSO; (6) nobody reported the post to law
enforcement; and (7) the general social conditions during the early onset of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
These facts and circumstances are not sufficient for a reasonable
person to believe that Bailey had violated the Louisiana terrorizing statute.
The statute’s requirement that the communication have “an immediacy
element concerning the false information” is lacking. See J.S., 808 So. 2d at
462. Moreover, “causation of ‘sustained fear’ is clearly an essential element
of this part of the statute.” RT, 781 So. 2d at 1242. Here, however, there
were no facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe that Bailey’s post
caused sustained fear. No members of the public expressed any type of
concern. Even if the post were taken seriously, it is too general and
contingent to be a specific threat that harm is “imminent or in progress.”
Nor would a reasonable person believe, based on these facts, that Bailey acted
with the requisite “specific intent” to cause sustained fear or serious public
disruption. Lewis, 43 So. 3d at 985.
In concluding otherwise, the district court gave undo consideration to
(1) Iles’ subjective beliefs and (2) social conditions at the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic. First, because probable cause is an objective standard,
Iles’ subjective belief that the post “meant to get police officers hurt” cannot
supply probable cause; furthermore, Iles’ explanation that his belief was
based on there being “a lot of protests at the time in reference to law
enforcement” is not plausible because Bailey was arrested in March 2020,
while widespread protests concerning law enforcement did not begin until
after George Floyd’s murder in May 2020.
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Second, the district court stated that the timing of the post during the
first month of the COVID-19 pandemic—a time of dramatic change, fear,
uncertainty, and misinformation—was “central” and “critical” to its
probable cause analysis. While the social context of COVID-19 is certainly a
relevant consideration, see, e.g. Perez, 43 F.4th at 442–43, the general fear and
uncertainty around COVID-19 does not turn Bailey’s otherwise-inane
Facebook post into a terroristic threat under Louisiana law. See RT, 781 So.
2d at 1241–42 (holding that a student who told another student that it would
be “easy to have a shooting” and described how he would carry out a school
shooting did not violate the terrorizing statute because he had not threatened
imminent harm and had not caused sustained fear even though the
conversation took place “just a few days” after the Columbine tragedy
amidst a “climate of fear”); J.S., 808 So. 2d at 461, 463 (holding that a
student who wrote “Everyone will die May 28, 1999. Be Ready.” on a school
bathroom wall one month after Columbine did not violate the terrorizing
statute because there was no evidence that the graffiti caused sustained fear
or serious disruption, “even in the atmosphere created by the Colorado
tragedy”).
Iles is “entitled to qualified immunity unless there was no actual
probable cause for the arrest” and he was “objectively unreasonable in
believing there was probable cause for the arrest.” Davidson v. City of
Stafford, 848 F.3d 384, 391 (5th Cir. 2017), as revised (Mar. 31, 2017). Having
determined that there was no actual probable cause for the arrest, we hold
that Iles is not entitled to qualified immunity because he was “objectively
unreasonable” in believing otherwise. In other words, Iles is not entitled to
qualified immunity because no reasonable officer could have found probable
cause to arrest Bailey for violating the Louisiana terrorizing statute in light of
the facts, the text of the statute, and the state case law interpreting it.
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Iles appears to argue that the law was not clearly established, and that
he is therefore entitled to qualified immunity, because there is no Fifth
Circuit precedent addressing warrantless arrests pursuant to the Louisiana
terrorizing statute. But Bailey does not have to identify such a case to defeat
qualified immunity. First, it is beyond debate that “[a] warrantless arrest
without probable cause violates clearly established law defining an
individual’s rights under the Fourth Amendment.” Davidson, 848 F.3d at
391. Second, whether it was “objectively reasonable” for Iles to believe there
was probable cause is “assessed in light of legal rules clearly established at
the time of the incident,” which includes the statute’s text and state case law
interpreting it. Alexander v. City of Round Rock, 854 F.3d 298, 306-07 (5th
Cir. 2017). As explained above, at the time of the incident the text of the
terrorizing statute and state case law interpreting it made it clear that there
was no probable cause here. Tellingly, while Bailey cites to multiple
Louisiana cases supporting his interpretation of the statute, Iles cites to no
Louisiana case law interpreting the statute otherwise.
Instead, Iles relies on a recent unpublished decision, Stokes v.
Matranga, No. 21-30129, 2022 WL 1153125 (5th Cir. Apr. 19, 2022). In
Stokes, this court granted qualified immunity to an officer who arrested a
student for violating Louisiana’s terrorizing statute when he posed for a
photograph beside a drawing labeled “Future School Shooter” that was
published on social media. See generally id. Though Iles argues that this case
is instructive because likewise in Stokes, the officer was aware that the social
media post was done in jest, we find it distinguishable in at least one
important way. In identifying the officer’s knowledge at the time of the
arrest, we stressed that he was aware that parents had contacted the school
to express concerns and ask about taking their kids out of school. Id. at *3.
No such thing happened in this case. This, combined with Iles’ knowledge
that the post was a joke, severely undercuts probable cause for an arrest. As
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noted by the dissent in Stokes, “[o]fficers may not disregard facts tending to
dissipate probable cause,” id. at *7 (quoting Bigford, 824 F.2d at 1218)
(internal quotation omitted), and “[n]o decision by any court contradicts
[this principle].” Id. (emphasis added).
Bailey also contends that Iles is not entitled to qualified immunity
because the Facebook post was constitutionally protected speech, and it is
clearly established that protected speech cannot provide probable cause for
an arrest. For support, he cites numerous sister circuits. See, e.g., Swiecicki
v. Delgado, 463 F.3d 489, 498 (6th Cir. 2006) (“An officer may not base his
probable-cause determination on speech protected by the First
Amendment.”); Mink v. Knox, 613 F.3d 995, 1003-14 (10th Cir. 2010) (“It
goes without saying that a government official may not base her probable
cause determination on an ‘unjustifiable standard,’ such as speech protected
by the First Amendment.”) (quoting Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598,
608 (1985)); Id. at 1011 (“[S]peech, such as parody and rhetorical hyperbole,
which cannot reasonably be taken as stating actual fact, enjoys the full
protection of the First Amendment and therefore cannot constitute the crime
of criminal libel for purposes of a probable cause determination.”).
Having already determined that Iles is not entitled to qualified
immunity, we need not reach this alternative argument. In any event, we
observe that, at least in this case, Bailey’s two arguments converge or overlap
because the Louisiana terrorizing statute—with its requirements of
imminency, causation of sustained fear, and specific intent—only
criminalizes speech that is constitutionally unprotected because it falls within
the incitement and true threat categories, as defined by the Supreme Court.
In other words, because Bailey’s speech is not incitement or a true threat,
and is therefore constitutionally protected, there can be no probable cause to
believe that he violated La. R.S. 14:40.1.
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C. First Amendment claim
On appeal, the parties dispute the nature of Bailey’s First Amendment
claim. “The First Amendment prohibits not only direct limits on individual
speech but also adverse governmental action against an individual in
retaliation for the exercise of protected speech activities.” Keenan v. Tejeda,
290 F.3d 252, 258 (5th Cir. 2002). Defendants contend that in the district
court Bailey limited himself to a First Amendment retaliation claim and thus
forfeited any claim that his arrest was a direct limit on his First Amendment
rights. Bailey responds that on these facts—where the basis for the arrest
was speech itself—this is a distinction without a difference. According to
Bailey, there is no dispute that Iles arrested Bailey because of his speech and
no dispute that the arrest chilled his speech; rather, whether conceptualized
as a retaliation claim or a direct infringement claim, the only issue is whether
the speech was constitutionally protected. At this stage, we agree with Bailey
that, regardless of how his claim is conceptualized, the district court erred in
granting Iles qualified immunity.
The district court approached Bailey’s First Amendment claim as a
retaliation claim. To establish a claim for First Amendment retaliation,
plaintiffs must show that “(1) they were engaged in constitutionally
protected activity, (2) the defendants’ actions caused them to suffer an injury
that would chill a person of ordinary firmness from continuing to engage in
that activity, and (3) the defendants’ adverse actions were substantially
motivated against the plaintiffs’ exercise of constitutionally protected
conduct.” Keenan, 290 F.3d at 258.
The district court determined that Bailey could not satisfy the first
element because his speech was not constitutionally protected. As we
explained in Section III.A, this was error. Bailey’s Facebook post was
protected by the First Amendment. The district court then held that even if
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Bailey’s speech was constitutionally protected, Iles’ was still entitled to
qualified immunity because there was probable cause to arrest Bailey
pursuant to a “presumptively constitutional and enforceable statute.” See
Michigan v. DeFellippo, 443 U.S. 31, 37 (1979). As we explained in Section
III.B, that too was error because there was no probable cause and Iles was
objectively unreasonable in believing otherwise.
The district court also determined that Bailey could not satisfy the
third element because one deputy telling him the “next thing [you] put on
Facebook should be not to fuck with the police” did not create a genuine
dispute as to whether the arrest was substantially motivated by “a retaliatory
motive, rather than probable cause.” We disagree, but for a more
fundamental reason. Regardless of the unnamed deputy’s comment, Iles
admitted that he arrested Bailey at least in part because of the content of his
Facebook post, rather than for some other conduct, i.e. Iles admitted that the
arrest was at least “substantially motivated” by Bailey’s speech. Cf. Westfall
v. Luna, 903 F.3d 534, 551 (5th Cir. 2018) (granting qualified immunity when
the record failed to show that the police officer’s actions were motivated by
plaintiff’s speech rather than her conduct of reaching for a doorknob against
officers’ instructions). Last, there is no dispute as to the second element, as
Bailey’s speech was chilled when he deleted his Facebook post in response
to the arrest.
Further, Bailey has shown that Iles is not entitled to qualified
immunity as to the First Amendment claim. Based on decades of Supreme
Court precedent, it was clearly established that Bailey’s Facebook post did
not fit within one of the narrow categories of unprotected speech, like
incitement or true threats. See Brandenburg, 395 U.S. at 445–49; Hess, 414
U.S. at 106–09;; Watts, 394 U.S. at 706, 708; see also Kinney, 367 F.3d at 350
(“The central concept is that of ‘fair warning’: The law can be clearly
established ‘despite notable factual distinctions between the precedents
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relied on and the cases then before the Court, so long as the prior decisions
gave reasonable warning that the conduct then at issue violated constitutional
rights.” (quoting Hope, 536 U.S. at 740)). Thus, when Iles arrested Bailey,
he violated Bailey’s clearly established First Amendment right to engage in
speech even when some listeners consider the speech offensive, upsetting,
immature, in poor taste, or even dangerous. See, e.g. Hustler Mag., Inc., 485
U.S. at 54; Herceg, 814 F.2d at 1021–24. The district court erred in
concluding otherwise.
D. State law claims
Bailey appealed only the dismissal of his state law false arrest claim
and intentionally waived any challenge to the dismissal of his malicious
prosecution claim. The parties agree that Bailey’s state law false arrest claim
turns on whether there was probable cause for his arrest and that the Fourth
Amendment probable cause analysis is thus determinative of this claim.
Further, the parties agree that if Iles is liable for false arrest, then Wood is
vicariously liable under Louisiana law for the tort of his employee. As we
have already determined that the district court erred in concluding that there
was probable cause for Bailey’s arrest, we reverse the district court’s grant of
summary judgment to Defendants on Bailey’s state law false arrest claim.
IV. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the district court erred in
concluding that Bailey’s Facebook was constitutionally unprotected; erred in
granting qualified immunity to Iles on Bailey’s Fourth and First Amendment
claims; and erred in granting summary judgment to Defendants on Bailey’s
state law false arrest claim. Therefore, we REVERSE the district court’s
grant of summary judgment to Defendants and REMAND for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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