Fourth subpoena issued for independent journalist’s phone records

Journalist Priscilla Villarreal’s lawsuit against Texas officials, stemming from a 2017 arrest over her reporting, was dismissed for the second time by a federal appeals court on April 8, 2025.

In a social media post, Villarreal announced that she planned to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Villarreal was charged in December 2017 with two felony counts of “misuse of official information” after she publicized details about the identities of a man who died by suicide and a car accident victim before police officially released them.

The charges against her were dismissed in March 2019. Villarreal then sued officials from the city of Laredo, Texas, and Webb County for violating her First and Fourth amendment rights, alleging a pattern of harassment that included the arrest and multiple subpoenas.

A district court judge dismissed her claims and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal in January 2024. Villarreal appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled in October 2024 that in light of a separate decision earlier that year, the federal appeals court should reconsider its initial finding.

But in April 2025, the appeals court again dismissed Villarreal’s claims, arguing as it had done in the earlier dismissal order that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity.

“THE FIGHT CONTINUES,” Villarreal wrote on Facebook. “I will persist in my efforts to defend freedom of speech and ensure that journalists can operate without fear of retribution for the truth they uncover.”

Journalist Priscilla Villarreal’s lawsuit against Texas officials, stemming from a 2017 arrest over her reporting, was revived by the Supreme Court on Oct. 15, 2024, and sent back to the federal appeals court that had previously dismissed her claims.

Villarreal was charged in December 2017 with two felony counts of “misuse of official information” after she publicized details about the identities of a man who died by suicide and a car accident victim before police officially released them.

The charges against her were dismissed in March 2019. Villarreal then sued officials from the City of Laredo, Texas, and Webb County for violating her First and Fourth amendment rights.

Villarreal was arrested under a statute that had never been successfully prosecuted and which a judge ruled was unconstitutionally vague. She argued in her federal suit that the officials had selected a “facially unconstitutional” statute in order “to chill her First Amendment activity.”

A district court judge dismissed her claims and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal in January, ruling 9-7 that the city officials and police were entitled to qualified immunity. Villarreal appealed to the Supreme Court in April.

In the Supreme Court’s ruling, it said that in light of a separate decision earlier this year that also involved an apparently retaliatory arrest, the appeals court should reconsider its initial finding.

Villarreal celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision with posts on her Facebook page. “It has been a challenging seven years since Laredo officials attempted to silence me,” she wrote, “and this marks a significant step toward rectifying the wrongs I have faced.”

A federal appeals court on Jan. 23, 2024, upheld the dismissal of citizen journalist Priscilla Villarreal’s lawsuit against officials from the City of Laredo, Texas, and Webb County stemming from her arrest in December 2017.

Villarreal was charged with two felony counts of “misuse of official information” after she publicized information about the identities of a man who died by suicide and a car accident victim before police released them through official channels.

The charges were dismissed in March 2019 when a judge ruled that the statute — which had never been successfully prosecuted — was unconstitutionally vague. In April 2019, Villarreal filed her lawsuit against 10 officials from the city and county alleging violations of her First and Fourth Amendment rights.

After a district court judge dismissed her claims, a panel of three judges with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals initially ruled in her favor in November 2021. The court later vacated that ruling in favor of a full, en banc, panel hearing.

In the 5th Circuit’s subsequent decision, it ruled 9-7 that the city officials and police were entitled to qualified immunity, dismissing Villarreal’s allegations of retaliation.

“Villarreal and others portray her as a martyr for the sake of journalism. That is inappropriate,” Judge Edith H. Jones wrote for the majority. “She could have followed Texas law, or challenged that law in court, before reporting nonpublic information from the backchannel source.”

In four lengthy dissents, circuit judges objected to the majority’s characterization of Villarreal and her work as a citizen journalist and expressed concerns over the impact the decision may have for freedom of the press.

“There is simply no way such freedom can meaningfully exist unless journalists are allowed to seek non-public information from the government,” Judge James Graves Jr. wrote in his dissent. “Today’s majority opinion overlooks that protection all too cavalierly.”

Neither Villarreal nor her attorney responded to requests for comment. In a post on Facebook, Villarreal wrote that she wasn’t surprised by the majority opinion and that she plans to appeal her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“[T]hey violated constitutional rights and someone needed to set these people straight,” Villarreal wrote. “I want to be the one that makes that change for the next person.”