Attorneys for Pastor Michael Jennings, the Childersburg pastor who was arrested while watering his neighbors flowers, won a huge victory today with a federal appeals court reversing a lower court’s decision to dismiss Jennings’ lawsuit against the City of Childersburg and the three officers who illegally arrested him saying the officers “lacked even arguable probable cause” to arrest Jennings. Video of Jennings’ arrest as he was peacefully watering his neighbor’s flowers went viral in August 2022 sparking a media firestorm and national outrage along with a federal lawsuit filed a month later. Unfortunately, Jennings’ lawsuit was dismissed in December 2023 after a judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled that the officers who had arrested Jennings were covered under qualified immunity and the City of Childersburg was granted state-agent immunity.  The ruling, however, reversed that decision and remanded the case back to the lower court. Pastor Jennings is represented by renowned national civil rights attorney Harry Daniels as well as Bethaney Embry Jones and Joi Travis. According to the ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, “Jennings was under no legal obligation to provide his ID. Therefore, officers lacked probable cause for Jennings’ arrest for obstructing government operations because Jennings did not commit an independent unlawful act by refusing to give ID.” The ruling goes on to explain that officers Christopher Smith, Justin Gable and Jeremy Brooks violated Alabama law when they arrested Jennings saying, “these officers lacked even arguable probable cause. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment on Jennings’ unlawful arrest claim because the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity.” “This is a win for Pastor Jennings and a win for justice,” said Daniels. “The video speaks for itself. These officers decided they were going to arrest Pastor Jennings without probable cause less than five minutes after they pulled up and then tried to rewrite history claiming he hadn’t identified himself when that was the first thing he did.” The post ​​Black Pastor Arrested Watering Neighbor’s Flowers Wins Appeal ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.