The Supreme Court examines the issue of blocking criticism of public officials

2023-04-24 22:24:44, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether public officials are allowed to block comments from critics on their social media accounts, an issue previously raised in a case involving former President Donald Trump.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court threw out a case over Mr Trump's efforts to block critics from his personal Twitter account.

A lower court had ruled that former President Trump had violated the First Amendment to the Constitution by blocking the views of critical voices.

But the Supreme Court had decided to throw out the case after it said it was no longer necessary to review it after Mr Trump's suspension from Twitter and the end of his presidential term.

The account of the former republican president has been unlocked.

The court has now agreed to hear two cases involving figures of a much lower profile. The first involves two elected members of a California board of education.

The members, Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff and TJ Zane, use their Facebook and Twitter accounts to communicate with the public.

Two parents, Christopher and Kimberly Garnier, were blocked from board members' accounts after criticizing their posts. An appeals court found that the board members violated their free speech rights by doing so.

The other case concerns James Freed, who since 2014 leads the administration of the city of Port Huron in Michigan.

Mr. Freed, who was appointed to the position by the mayor and City Council, uses a Facebook page to communicate with the public.

In 2020, a resident, Kevin Lindke, commented on this account several times from three Facebook profiles, criticizing, among other things, the municipality's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Freed blocked all three accounts and deleted Mr. Lindke's comments.

Mr. Lindke sued, but the lower courts sided with Mr. Freed. Katie Fallow, an expert at the Knight Institute for the First Amendment at Columbia University, which was involved in the Trump case, said that more and more public officials are using social media to communicate about official business.

"Government officials can't block people from these forums simply because they don't like what they're saying," Ms Fallow said.

The Supreme Court will not hear new cases until the fall. Justices this week are hearing their final scheduled arguments and will make decisions in May and June before going on summer break. The court will resume the examination of arguments in October./ VOA