Ponder v. Poland

How courts have described this case

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

• concluding that the speaker’s insults were not “fighting words” in part because the targets of the insults did not react with violence or view the insults as an invitation to fight
• finding that the plaintiff’s description of police officers as “fucking thugs with badges,” “six bitch ass fucking pigs,” and “eight pussies with badges,” among other insults was constitutionally protected
• noting that the threshold is low for showing that an action deterred a person of ordinary firmness to exercise a First Amendment right, which is an act that is more than mere threats or a slight, minor, or petty annoyance
• reversing district court’s grant of qualified immunity from a First Amendment retaliation claim for a disorderly conduct arrest
• reversing district court’s grant of qualified immunity from a First Amendment retaliation claim for a disorderly conduct arrest
• finding adverse action where “police officers removed Wood from a public event under armed escort”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).