The Supreme Court on June 20 ruled 8–1 in favor of a former city council member in Texas who sued for retaliation after she was arrested following her criticism of city officials.
The new opinion in Gonzalez v. Trevino was marked “per curiam” and not signed by a specific justice. Although per curiam means “for the court” and is supposed to imply unanimity among the justices, the decision was not unanimous.
Justice Clarence Thomas filed a dissenting opinion.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit failed to properly apply existing precedent, the Supreme Court held as it vacated the lower court’s judgment and returned the case to that court “for proceedings consistent with this opinion.”…