The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit joined six other circuits in considering whether a person has First Amendment rights to film a traffic stop in Colorado, ultimately reversing the lower court’s holding that an officer who allegedly obstructed a YouTube journalist/blogger’s camera view had qualified immunity protections.
In May 2019, Abade Irizarry was filming a DUI traffic stop with his cellphone and camera. When he arrived on scene, Lakewood Police Officer Ahmed Yehia allegedly stood in front of Irizarry and shined a flashlight into the blogger’s camera, according to the circuit court’s opinion filed July 11.
