Yes folks it’s true, a judge just decided that it is illegal and against your First Amendment right to be blocked on Social Media by any public official’s page. Which means friend requests to POTUS Donnie’s twitter page must be allowed because he has not been a private citizen since January 20 2017. – PB/TK
Ruling Against Facebook Ban Suggests Trump’s Twitter Blocks Are Unconstitutional – By Jacob Sullum / July 31 2017
Phyllis Randall, chair of the Loudon County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors, banned Brian Davison from her Facebook page for just 12 hours. But according to a federal judge in Alexandria, that brief banishment in February 2016 was enough to violate Davison’s First Amendment rights. The ruling, published last week, reinforces the logic of a recent federal lawsuit claiming that Donald Trump engages in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination when he blocks critics on Twitter.
Randall banned Davison, a local gadfly, from her “Chair Phyllis J. Randall” Facebook page after he posted a comment suggesting that members of the Loudon County School Board had taken official actions that benefited their relatives. “If the Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence makes anything clear, it is that speech may not be disfavored by the government simply because it offends,” writes U.S. District Judge James Cacheris, a Reagan appointee, in his decision siding with Davison. “The suppression of critical commentary regarding elected officials is the quintessential form of viewpoint discrimination against which the First Amendment guards. By prohibiting Plaintiff from participating in her online forum because she took offense at his claim that her colleagues in the County government had acted unethically, Defendant committed a cardinal sin under the First Amendment.”
Cacheris rejected Randall’s contention that her Facebook page “is merely a personal website that she may do with as she pleases.” He notes that she and her chief of staff created it shortly before she took office, that it it lists her official position and contact information, and that she uses it primarily for official purposes such as describing the supervisors’ work, implementing their policies, documenting her appearances as a representative of the county government, and communicating with her constituents. “I really want to hear from ANY Loudoun citizen on ANY issues, request, criticism, compliment, or just your thoughts,” she says in one post. “However, I really try to keep back and forth conversations (as opposed to one time information items such as road closures) on my county Facebook page (Chair Phyllis J. Randall) or County email (phyllis.randall@loudoun.gov).”
Continue to reason.com article: http://reason.com/blog/2017/07/31/victory-for-gadfly-banned-from-facebook
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