A federal circuit judge, revisiting a case in which a citizen journalist was arrested for asking police questions, called out the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for courting totalitarianism.

Last November, a Fifth Circuit panel reversed a Laredo district court that dismissed with prejudice a journalist’s civil rights claims. The panel dismissed the plaintiff’s claims against the City of Laredo, but on remand, it allowed First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claims to proceed against the police.