Duran v. City Of Douglas

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that “making obscene gestures” and “yelling profanities,” while “boorish, crass and, initially at least, unjustified,” is “not illegal”
• holding that police did not 4 have reasonable suspicion to stop an individual for suspected criminal activity based on 5 obscene gestures he directed at police
• stating that making obscene gestures and yelling profanities at an officer “was not illegal; criticism of the police is not a crime” (citing Houston v. Hill, 482 U.S. 451, 461-63 (1987)
• noting that “no matter how 12 peculiar, abrasive, unruly or distasteful a person's conduct may be, it cannot justify a police stop 13 unless it suggests that some specific crime has been or is about to be, committed.”
• finding summary judgment inappropriate where the officer admitted to stopping the plaintiff because the plaintiff made obscene gestures and yelled profanities but claimed he had no retaliatory motive because he honestly believed criminal activity might be afoot
• denying summary judgment on First Amendment claim where officer claimed he lacked retaliatory motive but reasonable juror could find traffic stop was retaliatory in absence of “legitimate, articulate” reason for traffic stop

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).