On Tuesday, a federal appeals court rejected an appeal from Texas journalist Priscilla “La Gordiloca” Villarreal who was wrongly arrested by local police for committing the crime of journalism.

Back in 2017, Villarreal was arrested by police in Laredo after she reported on the suicide of a federal law enforcement agency employee. She obtained her information from a source who worked for the government and published the information she received.

She was arrested on the basis of a bizarre statute criminalizing anyone who “solicits or receives from a public servant information that…has not been made public.”

Though the charge was ultimately dropped due to obvious constitutional issues, the ordeal of being arrested for doing journalism is unquestionably intolerable. That is the act of an authoritarian government.

And so, Villarreal filed a lawsuit against those who arrested her for violating her constitutional rights.

Unfortunately, the appeals court ruled 9-7 that the police officers and government officials responsible for her arrest were shielded from liability.

Among the dissenters was Judge James Graves Jr., who wrote, “the majority would limit journalists who work the government beat to publicly disclosed documents and official press conferences, meaning they will only be able to report information the government chooses to share. That outcome is unfortunate, unfair, and unconstitutional. It is unfortunate because a democracy functions properly only when the citizenry is informed. It is unfair because it restricts the journalistic freedom to gather information. And it is unconstitutional, for ‘[a] free press cannot be made to rely solely upon the sufferance of government to supply it with information.’”

Alas, this is what a majority of Texas appeals court judges have chosen to do by invoking  the doctrine of qualified immunity to protect government officials and officers from being held accountable for their assault on constitutional rights.

Qualified immunity is a creation of the courts and a perversion of our justice system. It shields criminal cops and politicians who violate the rights of the people.

Once again, we call for the abolition of qualified immunity.