A Texas grandmother is fighting her arrest all the way up to the Supreme Court.
The Institute for Justice explains that the offense committed by Sylvia Gonzalez, 76, was to be criticizing a city manager.
The retiree lives in Castle Hills, Texas, and was arrested “in punishment for criticizing the city’s management and officials,” the IJ explained in its report.
She faced harassment, false charges, and even imprisonment, “all stemming from her efforts to hold Castle Hills city officials accountable for their actions,” the legal team said.
At issue are free speech, retaliation by government action and qualified immunity for those officials.
The IJ explained, “Sylvia’s case began in 2019. After winning a hard-fought election, Sylvia Gonzalez became the first Hispanic councilwoman in Castle Hills history. In response to concerns raised by her constituents, she championed a nonbinding, citizen-signed petition calling for the removal of the city manager. This act of political speech and petition, protected by the core of the First Amendment, was met with a coordinated campaign of retaliation by Castle Hills officials.”
City officials subsequently “engineered her arrest for allegedly tampering with a government record. They argued she’d stolen her own petition from the mayor as she was gathering her papers at the end of a council meeting.”