Supreme Court rules for Secret Service in Cheney free speech case

WASHINGTON -- The US Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that two Secret Service agents are immune from a lawsuit filed by a Colorado man they arrested after he accosted then-Vice President Dick Cheney.

The high court held the agents were entitled to "qualified immunity" because it was not "clearly established" that they were violating Steven Howards' free speech rights when they took him into custody.

"This Court has never recognized a First Amendment right to be free from a retaliatory arrest that is supported by probable cause; nor was such a right otherwise clearly established at the time of Howards' arrest," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the court's opinion.

Secret Service agents Gus Reichle and Dan Doyle arrested Howards after he confronted Cheney at a 2006 appearance at a Colorado shopping mall.

Agents began monitoring Howards after Doyle observed him talking on his cellphone saying, "I'm going to ask [the Vice President] how many kids he's killed today."

Howards then entered a line to meet Cheney, where he told him that his "policies in Iraq are disgusting." Cheney simply thanked Howards, but Howards touched the Vice President on the shoulder as he moved to meet more people in the crowd.

After Howards walked away, he was stopped by Reichele. Howards denied touching Cheney, which prompted his arrest.

Colorado authorities charged Howards with harassment, but the charge was eventually dropped.

Howards subsequently sued Reichle and Doyle.

But in a victory for the Obama administration, the high court reversed the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and threw out the lawsuit Monday by ruling that the agents had immunity.

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Supreme Court rules for Secret Service in Cheney free speech case