The District Court nonetheless granted summary
judgment in favor of Defendants on the First Amendment
claims. They did not argue against the existence of a First
Amendment right, but rather contended that the individual
officers were entitled to qualified immunity and that the City
could not be vicariously liable for the officers’ acts. Yet the
District Court on its own decided that Plaintiffs’ activities
were not protected by the First Amendment because they
presented no evidence that their “conduct may be construed
as expression of a belief or criticism of police activity.”
Fields v. City of Philadelphia, 166 F. Supp. 3d 528, 537 (E.D.
Pa. 2016). When confronted by the police, Plaintiffs did not
express their reasons for recording. Their later deposition
testimony showed that Geraci simply wanted to observe and
Fields wanted to take a picture of an “interesting” and “cool”
scene. Id. at 539. In addition, neither testified of having an
intent to share his or her photos or videos. Id. The District
Court thus concluded that, “[a]bsent any authority from the
Supreme Court or our Court of Appeals, we decline to create
a new First Amendment right for citizens to photograph
officers when they have no expressive purpose such as
challenging police actions.” Id. at 542.
