Councilwoman Arrested After Trying to Oust Manager Loses Suit

The First Amendment rights of a Texas councilwoman weren’t violated when the mayor allegedly orchestrated her arrest after she spoke out against the sitting city manager he favored, a divided Fifth Circuit said Friday.

Since there was probable cause for Sylvia Gonzalez’s arrest and she didn’t show that she was treated worse than other, similarly situated people who violated the law, she failed to prove her First Amendment retaliation claim, the opinion by Judge Kurt D. Englehardt said.

Gonzalez organized a petition drive to have the city manager ousted. After the counsel meeting where someone else presented the petition, Gonzalez ...