Politicians can’t block online critics
In a decision that could affect a similar case involving President Donald Trump, an appeals court has ruled that a Virginia politician who blocked a critic from her Facebook page violated the First Amendment.
In 2016, Brian Davison filed a lawsuit against Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall for banning him for posting Facebook comments accusing members of the county school board of conflicts of interest. Davison won the lawsuit, and Randall appealed. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a decision that decided the blocking was unconstitutional.
“Put simply, Randall unconstitutionally sought to ‘suppress’ Davison’s opinion that there was corruption on the School Board,” Circuit Judge James Wynn wrote for the three-judge panel.
How might this decision — the first by a federal appeals court addressing the matter — affect the president?
A judge ruled in May that Trump’s blocking of his critics on Twitter “constitutes viewpoint discrimination that violates the First Amendment.” The Department of Justice, representing the president, has appealed that ruling by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In Monday’s ruling, Circuit Court Judge Barbara Milano Keenan wrote a concurring opinion in which she mentioned the president’s case and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to “consider further the reach of the First Amendment in the context of social media.”
Keenan added: “Cases necessarily will arise requiring courts to consider the nuances of social media and their various roles in hosting public forums established by government officials or entities.”
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University brought both the lawsuit against Trump by seven Twitter users and Davison’s suit against Randall in Virginia.
“Public officials, who increasingly use social media accounts as public forums to foster speech and debate among their constituents, have no greater license to suppress dissent online than they do offline,” said Katie Fallow, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. Fallow argued the case on behalf of Davison.