[3] In that case, Russell Bartlett sued Luis Nieves and his colleague, both Alaska State Troopers.

[4] Gonzales sued various local officials, including mayor Edward Trevino, II, the chief of police, and a lawyer-turned-special detective for the police, for retaliatory arrest against her protected First Amendment speech, the culmination of an alleged months-long scheme to punish her for her petition to remove the city manager.

The complaint sought retrospective relief; at that time, Gonzalez's mugshot had already been widely disseminated, and she had been hounded out of office.

On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed, holding that the Nieves probable cause exception could not be invoked unless Gonzalez could point to specific individuals who were not critics of the Castle Hills local government, and had not been arrested after mishandling a government petition.

The case was argued by Anya Bidwell, Nicole F. Reaves, and Lisa Blatt, on behalf of Gonzalez, the United States, and Trevino, respectively.

Clarifying the scope of the Nieves probable cause exception, the Court held that plaintiffs alleging retaliatory arrest need not produce "virtually identical and identifiable comparators".