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Saturday 16 March 2024
Supreme Court rules public officials can sometimes be sued for

blocking critics on social media

By MARK SHERMAN constitutional rights.” Port Huron city manager in
Associated Press The court ruled in two cas- 2014, used the Facebook
WASHINGTON (AP) — A es involving lawsuits filed by page he first created while
unanimous Supreme Court people who were blocked in college to communicate
ruled Friday that public of- after leaving critical com- with the public, as well as
ficials can sometimes be ments on social media recount the details of daily
sued for blocking their crit- accounts belonging to life.
ics on social media, an is- school board members in In 2020, a resident, Kevin
sue that first arose for the Southern California and a Lindke, used the page to
high court in a case involv- city manager in Port Huron, comment several times
ing then-President Donald Michigan, northeast of De- from three Facebook pro-
Trump. troit. They are similar to a files, including criticism
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, case involving Trump and of the city’s response to
writing for the court, said his decision to block critics the COVID-19 pandemic.
that officials who use per- from his personal account Freed blocked all three
sonal accounts to make on Twitter, now known as accounts and deleted
official statements may X. The justices dismissed the The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, March 7, 2024. Lindke’s comments. Lindke
not be free to delete com- case after Trump left office Associated Press sued, but the 6th U.S. Cir-
ments about those state- in January 2021. cuit Court of Appeals sid-
ments or block critics alto- The cases forced the court ing virtual world. They are cisco and Cincinnati had ed with Freed, noting that
gether. to deal with the competing among five social media reached conflicting deci- his Facebook page talked
On the other hand, Barrett free speech rights of public cases on the court’s dock- sions about when personal about his roles as “father,
wrote, “State officials have officials and their constitu- et this term. accounts become official, husband, and city man-
private lives and their own ents, all in a rapidly evolv- Appeals courts in San Fran- and the high court did not ager.”
embrace either ruling, re- The other case involved
turning the cases to the ap- two elected members of
peals courts to apply the a California school board,
standard the justices laid the Poway Unified School
out Friday. District Board of Trustees.
“When a government of- The members, Michelle
ficial posts about job-relat- O’Connor-Ratcliff and T.J.
ed topics on social media, Zane, used their personal
it can be difficult to tell Facebook and Twitter ac-
whether the speech is offi- counts to communicate
cial or private,” Barrett said. with the public. Two par-
Officials must have the ents, Christopher and Kim-
authority to speak on be- berly Garnier, left critical
half of their governments comments and replies to
and intend to use it for posts on the board mem-
their posts to be regarded bers’ accounts and were
essentially as the govern- blocked. The 9th U.S. Cir-
ment’s, Barrett wrote. In cuit Court of Appeals said
such cases, they have to the board members had
allow criticism, or risk being violated the parents’ free
sued, she wrote. speech rights by doing so.
In one case, James Freed, Zane no longer serves on
who was appointed the the school board.q

In conjunction with the national holiday Himno y Bandera
(Day of the National Anthem and Flag), Aruba Today will
not be published on Monday, March 18th, 2024. We will
resume our regular printing schedule on Tuesday, March,
19th, 2024.