BROADCAST BLUE host and LEA ONE instructor Bruce-Alan Barnard presents a case study on Villareal v. City of Laredo et al. In this case, the Fifth Circuit denied qualified immunity to law enforcement officers holding that a state criminal statute was unconstitutional and the officers had an independent responsibility to second-guess the state legislature that created a criminal statute as well as the judge who issued a warrant under that statute regarding the statutes constitutionality.

Broadcast BLUE

Bruce-Alan Barnard

Villareal v. City of Laredo

NOV 13, 202159 MIN
Broadcast BLUE

Villareal v. City of Laredo

NOV 13, 202159 MIN

Description

In this 60-minute podcast, host Bruce-Alan Barnard from LEA ONE provides an in-depth analysis of the Fifth Circuit decision in Villareal v. City of Laredo et al decided on November 1, 2021. In this case, the Fifth Circuit denied qualified immunity to officers who made an arrest under an arrest warrant because the statute under which the arrest was made was deemed to be unconstitutional after the arrest.  The court held that, notwithstanding the fact that no court had ever declared the statute unconstitutional and a neutral magistrate issued an arrest warrant under the statute, the officers should have independently determined that the statute was unconstitutional and not made the arrest.