On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Appeals to Third Circuit on Behalf of Business Owner Threatened with Arrest for Videotaping Police on a Public Sidewalk
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to overturn the dismissal of a First Amendment lawsuit against two police officers who threatened a business owner with arrest simply for videotaping his own business activities and his subsequent interaction with the police while on a public sidewalk in Franklin, Pennsylvania. The officers with the Franklin Police Department allegedly informed Skip Dreibelbis, president of True Blue Auctions, that by videotaping on a public sidewalk, he was violating wiretapping laws. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the police officers were protected by qualified immunity because the constitutional right to videotape police in public is not “clearly established.” The Institute’s appeal argues that the court erred in its ruling, citing a number of court rulings establishing that videotaping police officers is a constitutionally protected activity.
The Rutherford Institute’s brief in True Blue Auctions, LLC v. Foster is available here.
“Increasingly, we hear reports of police arresting journalists, activists and general onlookers simply for attempting to record incidents in which the police may be overstepping their bounds,” said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute. “Making matters worse is a tendency on the part of the courts to favor government authority at the expense of individual freedoms—whether the issue is law enforcement’s semi-abusive use of tasers, strip searches of innocent people, or retaliatory arrests of those who videotape civil servants. Our hope is that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals will reverse this unfortunate trend and protect the rights of the citizenry.”
True Blue Auctions, founded by Skip Dreibelbis, provides a variety of auction services to businesses and individuals throughout the country. As part of its normal business practices, True Blue posts auction signs at an auction site and often videotapes the auction so it has a record of bids, amounts, and other details to aid in resolving potential disputes. The videotaping of the auction is always done in the open, at a location to which the public is invited, with permission of the owner of the premises and/or in a public forum area. True Blue Auctions was contracted to carry out a two-day auction in Franklin, Penn., beginning on October 16, 2009. That day, Dreibelbis posted auction signs at the site and began videotaping the auction from the premises where the auction was taking place and from an adjacent public sidewalk. At no time did Dreibelbis block pedestrian traffic on the public sidewalk, nor did anyone complain about the signs or the videotaping. Nevertheless, two police officers approached Dreibelbis while he was videotaping the auction from the sidewalk and allegedly informed him that videotaping was against wiretapping laws and that they would have to arrest Dreibelbis if he didn’t put away his video recorder. According to the complaint, the officers also ordered Dreibelbis to remove his posted auction signs and move about 75 yards away.
In filing suit against the two officers, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute asserted that individuals have a right under the First Amendment to videotape persons, including police officers, in public places. However, the District Court granted the officers’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit under the doctrine of “qualified immunity,” ruling that the law did not clearly establish the right of citizens to videotape police activities. In their brief filed with the Court of Appeals, Institute attorneys point to a host of court decisions ruling that the First Amendment protects the right of citizens to monitor and record police activities in public.
Attorneys J. Michael Considine, Jr., of West Chester, and Joseph L. Luciana, III of the Pittsburgh firm of Dingess, Foster, Luciana, Davidson and Chleboski are assisting The Rutherford Institute in its defense of Dreibelbis.
