Fogleman-Laxey v. Guillory

Summary

A Fifth Circuit per curiam affirmed dismissal of Tara Fogleman-Laxey's § 1983 and state-law claims arising from her arrest while barbecuing in protest on the public street outside Lafayette's mayor-president's home. The court held she failed to carry her burden to overcome qualified immunity on her First and Fourth Amendment claims because the precedent she invoked—offered for the first time on appeal—was factually dissimilar and framed too generally to give the officers fair warning, and it held her Monell claim failed because the allegation that Mayor Guillory ordered and directed her arrest was conclusory and speculative. Judge Willett dissented, arguing the majority converted Rule 12 into factfinding, that the pleaded facts negated arguable probable cause under Louisiana's obstruction statute, and that the mayor-directed-arrest allegation was a plausible historical fact sufficient for Monell purposes.