Fred Rahdar, et al. v. City of Friendswood, Texas, et al.

After the Friendswood officials tried to shut down his lawfully opened restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic, Petitioner Fred Rahdar publicly criticized the chief of police with a billboard labeling him as a bully and created a website and public petition calling for his removal. In response, Defendants designed and executed a multi-year retaliation campaign against Petitioners, which included harassment, surveillance, multiple arrests, complaints to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, daily bar checks for his restaurant, highly irregular arrest procedures, and a fifth arrest for a nonviolent misdemeanor based on a statute that has never before (or since) been used to charge someone for the same or similar conduct. The question presented is: 1. Whether the opinion in Gonzalez v. Trevino, 144 S. Ct. 1663 (2024), authorizes the use of any objective evidence to defeat probable cause.