First Amendment auditor lawsuit wins have produced payouts ranging from about $9,500 to $75,000 in the reported cases, along with forced revisions to police policy, training videos, and appellate rulings that make future arrests harder to defend. Whether a given auditor prevails depends less on the facts of the encounter than on which federal circuit they file in and whether the filming happened in a genuinely public place.
Reported Payouts and Verdicts
Colorado Springs: $41,000 to Terrell Clayton
In November 2017, Terrell Clayton stood outside a Colorado Springs Police Department substation photographing marked cruisers entering a secured lot. Two officers detained him in a squad car, took his camera and phone, and cited him for disorderly conduct after he refused to produce identification.1The Gazette. Colorado Springs to Pay Cameraman $41,000 After First Amendment Audit of Police The city settled in May 2018 for $41,000 without admitting wrongdoing, and the department amended its General Orders to say that “taking photographs or recording from a public place in and of itself does not constitute suspicious activity.”2KKTV. Colorado Springs to Pay Cameraman $41,000 After First Amendment Audit of Police
Silverthorne: $9,500 to Jason Gutterman
Jason Gutterman, who runs the YouTube channel Amagansett Press, filmed inside the Silverthorne, Colorado, Post Office in February 2020. When he refused a request to stop, Silverthorne Police ordered him out. The town settled his threatened suit for $9,500 with no admission of liability.3Summit Daily News. Silverthorne Pays $9,500 Settlement to First Amendment Auditor Following Incident at Post Office
Fort Bend County, Texas: $75,000 to Justin Pulliam
Justin Pulliam, an independent journalist represented by the Institute for Justice, was excluded from a July 2021 Fort Bend County Sheriff’s press conference and then arrested in December 2021 by Lieutenant Taylor Rollins on a charge of interfering with police. The criminal case ended in a mistrial, with jurors voting five to one for acquittal.4Institute for Justice. Citizen Journalist Wins First Round of His First Amendment Lawsuit Against Fort Bend County Sheriff
On March 26, 2026, Judge George Hanks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that Rollins had arrested Pulliam “in retaliation for the exercise of his First Amendment rights” and that Sheriff Eric Fagan and the county violated Pulliam’s rights by barring him from the press conference. The court awarded Pulliam roughly $75,000 in compensatory damages and signaled a forthcoming order to protect his rights going forward.5Institute for Justice. Federal Court Rules That Fort Bend County Lieutenant Taylor Rollins Arrested Independent Journalist Justin Pulliam in Violation of the First Amendment
Gloucester, Massachusetts: Berge Revives His Case on Appeal
Inge Berge recorded a March 2022 visit to the Gloucester schools superintendent’s office and posted the video to Facebook. A school HR director sent him a letter demanding removal and threatening prosecution under the state wiretap statute. A district court dismissed his retaliation suit on qualified immunity, but on July 15, 2024, the First Circuit reversed, holding that officials should have known that recording public officials on matters of public concern is protected. The court wrote that “public officials cannot threaten a person with legal action under an obviously inapt statute simply because he published speech they did not like.”6Institute for Justice. Appeals Court Overturns Qualified Immunity for School Officials Who Threatened Parent With Legal Action for Recording The panel also held that state two-party consent laws do not apply to open recording in public areas, letting the case proceed against the individual defendants.7Ancel Glink P.C. First Amendment Auditor Case Decided in First Circuit
Why the Circuit You File in Matters
Most of these suits rise or fall on qualified immunity, which shields officers unless the right they violated was “clearly established” in that jurisdiction. Eight of the thirteen federal circuits have explicitly recognized a First Amendment right to record police performing public duties. No circuit has held that the right does not exist, and the U.S. Supreme Court has never directly addressed it.8Colorado Municipal League. Does the First Amendment Protect Filming Law Enforcement
Where the right is clearly established, immunity defenses collapse more readily. The First Circuit’s Glik v. Cunniffe (2011) called the right “a basic, vital, and well-established liberty” and denied immunity to arresting officers. Gericke v. Begin (2014) added that police may restrict filming only when an officer can “reasonably conclude that the filming itself is interfering, or is about to interfere” with duties.9Daigle Law Group. First Amendment Audits and the Civilian Right to Film Law Enforcement Part 1 The Seventh Circuit’s ACLU v. Alvarez (2012) struck down an Illinois eavesdropping statute that criminalized public audio recording of police. The Tenth Circuit’s Irizarry v. Yehia (2022) made the right clearly established in states like Colorado, and the Ninth Circuit’s Serrano v. Sanders (2024) held that the right “necessarily includes the right to peacefully observe officers carrying out their official duties in public.”10Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Codifying the Right to Record Police
The Fourth Circuit has not clearly established the right, and the Eighth Circuit’s position is unresolved as a First Amendment matter.8Colorado Municipal League. Does the First Amendment Protect Filming Law Enforcement Filing in a circuit that has spoken clearly is often the difference between a payout and a dismissal.
Where Auditors Lose
The right to record is broad but not absolute, and courts allow reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions inside government buildings. In Hoffman v. Delgado (2025), the Eleventh Circuit upheld the arrest of a photojournalist who refused to stop recording inside the Punta Gorda, Florida, police headquarters lobby, finding the lobby a limited public forum and the local recording ban reasonable and viewpoint-neutral. The court also concluded that the force used to remove him fell below the constitutional threshold.11Justia. Jerry Hoffman, Jr. v. Jose Delgado, et al.
Federal buildings can be even less forgiving. Colorado auditor Chris Cordova was convicted in 2024 for recording inside a Social Security Administration office, drawing 15 days in jail, two years of probation, and a $3,000 fine.12Denver Post. First Amendment Auditor Film Police Colorado
Auditors themselves have also become defendants. In 2026, Redwood City attorney Andrew Watters and a maintenance worker named Paul Rubino filed separate federal RICO suits against YouTube auditors including Richard Troyan, Richard Maza, and Conrad and Nick Rankin, alleging they used threats and violence to manufacture confrontational content. Rubino seeks $3 million and says he suffered major vision loss after Maza allegedly pepper-sprayed him at a Mountain View Costco. Maza pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery in the related criminal case and received probation.13Almanac News. YouTube First Amendment Auditor Gets Probation in Mountain View Pepper Spray Case14Dexerto. 51-Year-Old YouTuber Who Pepper-Sprayed Man for Content Gets Off Without Prison Time
What Wins Have Changed Beyond the Check
Money is not the only outcome. After the Clayton settlement, Colorado Springs revised its police General Orders and produced a roll-call training video on First Amendment rights.2KKTV. Colorado Springs to Pay Cameraman $41,000 After First Amendment Audit of Police The Texas Association of Counties began offering training in 2022 to help officials handle auditor encounters, and Grayson County, Texas, surveyed its buildings, trained staff, and posted “employees only” signage after a 2023 incident.15Texas Association of Counties. First Amendment Auditors
Colorado went further legislatively. C.R.S. § 16-3-311 codifies the right to record peace officers, and C.R.S. § 13-21-128 creates a civil remedy for interference that includes reimbursement for damaged equipment plus $500 for the loss of the recording itself.8Colorado Municipal League. Does the First Amendment Protect Filming Law Enforcement
Cases Worth Watching
SeanPaul Reyes, a journalist and auditor, was arrested twice in 2023 for filming inside NYPD precinct lobbies and charged with trespassing under the department’s “Anti-Recording Policy.” Both charges were dismissed. He sued in the Southern District of New York on July 24, 2023, and Judge Jessica Clarke granted a preliminary injunction against the NYPD policy in November 2023, though she rested it on New York’s state and city Right to Record Acts rather than the First Amendment claim. The Second Circuit partially stayed that injunction in March 2024 and in June 2025 certified to the New York Court of Appeals the question of whether the Right to Record Acts reach publicly accessible station lobbies.16Justia. Reyes v. City of New York The case remained active as of mid-2026.17CourtListener. Reyes v. The City of New York
Chris Cordova filed two suits in fall 2025. A state-court complaint filed August 22, 2025, alleges that two Englewood, Colorado, officers retaliated against him — one by striking his hand with a cruiser door and another by submitting an allegedly false arrest-warrant affidavit.18First Amendment Watch. Attorney Milo Schwab on a First Amendment Auditor’s Claims in Colorado12Denver Post. First Amendment Auditor Film Police Colorado Both cases were pending as of late 2025.