Cop Must Face Claims by Reporters Tear-Gassed in Ferguson

A SWAT team member must face First Amendment claims by three reporters he tear-gassed while they were covering the public unrest in Ferguson, Mo., after the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown, the Eighth Circuit said Thursday.

A reasonable officer in St. Charles County Deputy Michael Anderson’s place would have understood that tear-gassing the reporters was impermissible, the opinion by Judge Duane Benton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said.

Ash-har Quraishi, Marla Chichowski, and Sam Winslade were preparing for a live broadcast on the Al Jazeera America news network about a block and half from ...