211830P.pdf   02/02/2023  Sarah Molina  v.  Daniel Book
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  21-1830
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis   
   [PUBLISHED] [Stras, Author, with Benton and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Civil rights. St. Louis police officers were entitled to 
   qualified immunity on claims by two "legal observers" that officers 
   tear-gassed them in retaliation for the observers exercising their First 
   Amendment rights; with respect to the third plaintiff, who claimed that 
   officers shot him with a tear gas cannister after he shouted at them to 
   leave the park area, his criticism of the officers, even with profanity, 
   was protected speech and there was no probable cause, arguable or 
   otherwise, to take any action against him; while plaintiff could not 
   identify which officer inside an armored vehicle launched the canister, a 
   jury could find that each one of them participated in the decision or that 
   one did it while the others failed to intervene; however, one defendant, 
   Lieutenant Dodge, had no personal involvement in the violation, and he was 
   entitled to summary judgment. Judge Benton, concurring in part and 
   dissenting in part.