Politician Found at Fault in Facebook Case -- WSJ
July 28 2017 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Joe Palazzolo
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (July 28, 2017).
A federal court in Virginia ruled that a local politician
violated the free-speech rights of a constituent she banned from
her Facebook page, in a case the judge said raises "important
questions" about the constitutional restrictions that apply to
social media accounts of elected officials.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Cacheris in Alexandria,
Va., could buttress a lawsuit in New York alleging that President
Donald Trump unconstitutionally suppressed dissent by blocking
Twitter users from following his account.
President Trump's frequent use of Twitter has added urgency to
First Amendment questions revolving around the use of social media
by public officials.
In the Virginia case, Brian Davison sued the chairwoman of the
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, who temporarily banned him
from her Facebook page after he posted criticism of local officials
last year.
Judge Cacheris, finding that Phyllis Randall was acting as a
public official on her Facebook page, said Ms. Randall committed "a
cardinal sin under the First Amendment."
"The suppression of critical commentary regarding elected
officials is the quintessential form of viewpoint discrimination
against which the First Amendment guards," Judge Cacheris wrote in
his 44-page ruling on Tuesday.
Ms. Randall, who lifted the ban against Mr. Davison after 12
hours, faces no penalty. Judge Cacheris said the consequences of
her actions were "fairly minor."
Julia Judkins, a Fairfax, Va., lawyer who represents Ms.
Randall, said Judge Cacheris erred in equating Ms. Randall's
personal Facebook page to a government account.
"How does this one person's Facebook page that she's not using
county resources to maintain...how does that become like the
government?" Ms. Judkins said.
Judge Cacheris noted that Ms. Randall used her Facebook page to
solicit comments from her constituents.
Mr. Davison, a software consultant, said Ms. Randall posted
during business hours and meshed the trappings of her office,
including her government email address, into her account.
"She wants the public to believe she's transparent but then to
ban critics," he said.
Ms. Randall said she blocked Mr. Davison briefly because he
posted comments that mentioned the family of elected officials, but
that she wouldn't block anyone solely for making comments critical
of public officials themselves.
A separate lawsuit filed by Mr. Davison against county school
board officials who blocked him, alleging similar violations, is
pending before another judge on the Alexandria-based federal trial
court. A decision could come at any time.
Judge Cacheris said Ms. Randall is still free to moderate
comments on her Facebook page, and he cautioned that his ruling
shouldn't be read as prohibiting all public officials from blocking
commenters from their social media accounts.
Earlier this year, Judge Cacheris dismissed another lawsuit by
Mr. Davison against a state prosecutor who deleted Mr. Davison's
comments from the prosecutor's official Facebook page.
The judge ruled that the deletion was constitutional because the
plaintiff had attempted to "hijack the discussion" in violation of
a government social-media policy that permitted the removal of
"clearly off-topic" comments. The case is on appeal.
Ms. Randall's case could influence other courts weighing what
Judge Cacheris described as "important questions about the
constitutional limitations applicable to social media accounts
maintained by elected officials."
The lawsuit against Mr. Trump in federal court in Manhattan was
brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia
University on behalf of seven users whom Mr. Trump blocked.
"We hope the courts look to this opinion as a road map in
holding that it is unconstitutional for President Trump to block
his critics on Twitter," said Alex Abdo, senior staff attorney at
the institute.
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Corrections & Amplifications The name of the plaintiff in
the Virginia case is Brian Davison. An earlier version of the story
misspelled his surname. (July 27)
Write to Joe Palazzolo at joe.palazzolo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 28, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024