do you think this is I'm about to laugh the arrested for laughing case I'm the lawyer on that civil rights lawsuit and just last night we got a ruling finally on whether or not that police officer gets qualified immunity he got pulled over here in West Virginia for flashing his headlights at oncoming motorist in order to warn them of a notorious speed trap God flashing these lights warning everybody you're sitting there I'm going after him that wasn't a crime so the officer basically made up a citation and when he went to give it to my client he laughed and I could take you to jail today for your unsigned registration card but I just wrote you a citation for that that's actually up to 6 months in jail you think it's funny sir the officer didn't like that he pulls him out of the car he ends up putting him in handcuffs step out of the vehicle are you serious place your hands behind your back for me are you serious yes sir place your hands behind your back for me oh man you're serious brother I'm not your brother I've seen on some of the viral videos floating around the internet all sorts of claims about what actually happened in that case but they're all wrong I'm litigating the lawsuit and it's actually still pending but there's a huge update after we filed the lawsuit that officer and the sheriff of that County asked the federal court to dismiss it and to give the officer qualified imunity claiming that the driver had no right to warn others about a speed trap and also had no right to laugh at the police and the court answered those questions regarding qualified immunity the court said this defendants assert Deputy Ellison is entitled to qualified immun Community because it is debatable and thus not clearly established that flashing one's headlights to warn other motorists is protected speech that assertion however misses the point every reasonable officer in the United States is aware that retaliation for First Amendment speech is a violation of a person's constitutional rights whereas here the allegation is that a defendant knew of the speech and reacted to it accordingly qualified immunity cannot serve as a proper Shield if Justice plaintiff alleges Deputy Ellison knew of plain of speech had no probable cause to initiate the Stop and stop plain if anyway because of that speech then the actions make out a classic First Amendment retaliation claim in other words police officers are supposed to know they can't arrest people just for their engaging in protected speech like flashing headlights thus the court denied qualified immunity the court will address all of these issues again at the summary judgment stage which will include the testimony of the individuals and all other evidence including the video footage we're still in the discovery process that's still happening so if you want to follow along Please Subscribe both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights lawyer.com you can also follow me on xjn brryan Esq remember our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it [Music]