The federal appeals court rules that an Alabama pastor arrested for watering plants can sue police

A federal appeals court has ruled that police officers who arrested a black pastor who was watering his neighbor's plants can be sued. This will overturn a lower court's decision and likely send the case to trial.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Michael Jennings, who is a pastor at Abundant Life Ministries in Sylacauga, can move forward with his lawsuit against the city of Childersburg and several police officers. In the ruling, the justices found that the police officers who arrested Jennings “did not even have reasonable probable cause.”

“This is a victory for Pastor Jennings. “It's a victory for justice,” Jennings' attorney Harry Daniels said in an AP interview. “This has serious consequences for anyone who has been unlawfully arrested because they did not want to provide their identification.”

Jennings' arrest in May 2022 drew national attention and nationwide outrage when bodycam footage of the 20-minute encounter surfaced online. In this video, Jennings is seen using a water hose to spray plants outside a home when officers approach him and ask him what he is doing inside the home.

Jennings gave officers the name “Pastor Jennings” and told them that he had been asked to water the plants by the homeowners, who were family friends and neighbors. He also showed officers that he lived in a house nearby. When the police officers pressed him for more information and suggested that he might have malicious intentions, a dismayed Jennings told them that he would not give them any more information because they had no reason to ask for his identification.

The 11th Circuit judges agreed, writing that the officers involved in the arrest should not be granted qualified immunity because they lacked probable cause to arrest Jennings.

The Childersburg police officers involved in Jennings' arrest carried out the act even after it was clear who he was. In the viral video of the arrest, the woman who made the initial call to police to report a suspicious person told officers after learning that Jennings was the person in question that she had made a mistake and that Jennings and the homeowner are friends.

Jennings was arrested for obstructing government operations.