Virgil D. 'Gus' Reichle, Jr., et al., Petitioners v. Steven Howards

Decided June 4, 2012. Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 11-262 · 566 U.S. 658 (2012) · Cited 2,745 times

Holding

Petitioners are entitled to qualified immunity because, at the time of Howards’ arrest, it was not clearly established that an arrest supported by probable cause could give rise to a First Amendment violation.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Hartman v. Moore · 547 U.S. 250 (2006)
• Ashcroft v. al-Kidd · 563 U.S. 731 (2011)
• Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · 403 U.S. 388 (1971)
• Pearson v. Callahan · 555 U.S. 223 (2009)
• Anderson v. Creighton · 483 U.S. 635 (1987)
• Whren v. United States · 517 U.S. 806 (1996)
• Ashcroft v. Iqbal · 556 U.S. 662 (2009)
• Brosseau v. Haugen · 543 U.S. 194 (2004)
• Wilson v. Layne · 526 U.S. 603 (1999)
• Davis v. Scherer · 468 U.S. 183 (1984)
• Wayte v. United States · 470 U.S. 598 (1985)
• Bush v. Lucas · 462 U.S. 367 (1983)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• Camreta v. Greene · 563 U.S. 692 (2011)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Nieves v. Bartlett · 587 U.S. 391 (2019)
• Lozman v. Riviera Beach · 585 U.S. 87 (2018)
• Ziglar v. Abbasi · 582 U.S. 120 (2017)
• Wood v. Moss · 572 U.S. 744 (2014)
• Kisela v. Hughes · 584 U.S. 100 (2018)
• Taylor v. Barkes · 575 U.S. 822 (2015)
• Mullenix v. Luna · 577 U.S. 7 (2015)
• City and County of San Francisco v. Sheehan · 575 U.S. 600 (2015)
• Egbert v. Boule · 596 U.S. 482 (2022)
• Gonzalez v. Trevino · 602 U.S. 653 (2024)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2012). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).