A Florida provocateur has his day before the U.S. Supreme Court - again

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

A Florida provocateur has his day before the U.S. Supreme Court — again

By Robert Barnes February 25 at 6:48 PM

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The many descriptions bestowed on Fane Lozman over the years include political gadfly, relentless opponent of public corruption, and bored rich guy always spoiling for a fight.

If every town has a you-can’t-shut-me-up activist who second-guesses council members and dominates the public comments portions of meetings, few have elevated the art like Lozman. He has offered a $50,000 reward for dirt on local politicians and taunted them at a ribbon-cutting with an airplane flying overhead. “Adios,” said the banner that called the council corrupt.

So remarkable are his battles with the political leaders of this town of 35,000 people that they have drawn the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Not once, but twice.

The latest rendition of Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach has grown from a ham-handed attempt to cut him off at a city council meeting into a major free-speech showdown that will have nationwide implications for citizens arrested — as Lozman was — by government officials they criticize. The court will hear arguments in the case Tuesday.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/a-florida-provocateur-has-his-day-before-the-supreme-court--again/2018/02/25/925c9c26-1595-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html

[Sentath]

1. I'm not a subscriber, so I'm having trouble reading more. But,

Other articles online paint him as a political troll.

The great question of the age is: How do we continue to have a civil society with assholes gaming the system?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Argument preview: Justices to consider whether probable cause defeats claims of retaliatory arrest

Heidi Kitrosser Guest

Posted Wed, February 21st, 2018 3:11 pm

Argument preview: Justices to consider whether probable cause defeats claims of retaliatory arrest for First-Amendment-protected expression

On November 15, 2006, Fane Lozman rose to speak during the public-comments portion of a regular public meeting of the City Council of Riviera Beach, Florida. What followed was anything but a run-of-the-mill discussion about the intricacies of local government. To the contrary, when Lozman began to talk about “corrupt local politician[s],” he was cut off by a councilperson and asked to cease that line of commentary. When Lozman refused to comply, he was arrested, handcuffed and removed from the meeting.

In February 2008, Lozman filed a Section 1983 suit against Riviera Beach in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He alleged, among other things, that his arrest constituted retaliation for First-Amendment–protected activity. Specifically, Lozman charged that his arrest amounted to payback for two categories of protected expression: his then-pending lawsuit against the city under Florida’s Sunshine Act, and his extensive public criticisms of city officials and policies, including and preceding his remarks on November 15.

After a jury returned a verdict for the city, Lozman sought a new trial, which the district court denied, and he filed an unsuccessful appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The 11th Circuit acknowledged Lozman’s “compelling” argument that the district court had given erroneous jury instructions on retaliatory animus. The court of appeals held, however, that any such error was harmless, because the jury had found that the arresting officer had probable cause to arrest Lozman. The court relied on an earlier 11th Circuit case, Dahl v. Holley, which held that a plaintiff cannot prevail on a First Amendment retaliatory arrest claim if there was probable cause to justify the arrest.

On Tuesday, February 27, the Supreme Court will consider whether the 11th Circuit was correct in holding that the presence of probable cause necessarily defeats a claim of retaliatory arrest for First-Amendment-protected expression. In 2006, in Hartman v. Moore, the Supreme Court held that probable cause bars First Amendment claims alleging retaliatory prosecution. The court has yet to determine, however, whether to extend the Hartman rule (the “probable-cause bar”) to the retaliatory-arrest setting. Although the 2012 case Reichle v. Howards presented that very question, the court resolved Reichle on the narrower grounds of qualified immunity. Currently, the federal courts of appeals are split on the issue.
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Posted in Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida, Featured, Merits Cases

Recommended Citation: Heidi Kitrosser, Argument preview: Justices to consider whether probable cause defeats claims of retaliatory arrest for First-Amendment-protected expression, SCOTUSblog (Feb. 21, 2018, 3:11 PM), http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/02/argument-preview-justices-consider-whether-probable-cause-defeats-claims-retaliatory-arrest-first-amendment-protected-expression/