Page 47 - North Carolina 2020 Legal Guide

Task: Arrest in Retaliation for Exercise of First Amendment

Rights

Nieves v. Bartlett, 139 S.Ct. 1715 (2019).

• Generally, in the case of an arrest by an officer, probable cause will

defeat a plaintiff’s allegation that the officer’s arrest was in

retaliation for the exercise of the subject’s First Amendment rights

UNLESS:

• Plaintiff can show that officers generally exercise their discretion

and do not arrest for this crime but arrested in the subject’s case
because of the protected speech.

• Discovery will review data related to other arrests for the particular

offense.

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