In a case seeking to protect individuals exercising their First Amendment rights from retaliation, ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys David Cass and Lynette Labinger today filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Smithfield School District’s actions in blocking a local school critic from the official X (formerly Twitter) accounts of the district and the school district superintendent.
The lawsuit is on behalf of Smithfield resident Daniel Mayer, who had regularly viewed and interacted with Superintendent Dawn Bartz’s X account page to stay informed about issues that Bartz addressed. However, after advocating for her resignation, he found himself blocked from following and viewing her posts last August. Since then, both Bartz and the school district have changed their X accounts to require all people to seek approval in order to gain access to those accounts. Over four months ago, Mayer sought that approval but remains blocked from both sites.
The lawsuit, arguing that the censorship violates Mayer’s First Amendment rights “to speak and to petition the government for redress of grievances,” states: “Just as public officials may not preclude persons from participating in the public-comment portion of a town hall meeting based on their viewpoints or arbitrarily deny members of the public access to the meeting, Superintendent Bartz cannot ban users from the @SmithfieldSuper X account page because she dislikes their opinions or require formal approval in order to allow them access.”
The suit notes that both accounts are used to announce and describe school district policies and office operations; to share content produced for the town’s schools; and to communicate with constituents. The lawsuit argues that, as official accounts of the school district, access to them cannot be limited based on the identity or viewpoint of the individual seeking access.
The suit asks the court to declare the Smithfield School District and Smithfield Superintendent’s banning of the plaintiff and others from the X pages to be unconstitutional, to issue an injunction prohibiting the officials from banning anybody from the pages “on the basis of viewpoint,” and to bar the defendants from allowing only approved followers access to the X accounts. The suit also seeks an award of nominal damages and attorneys’ fees.
Plaintiff Mayer said today: “I’m pursuing this case because I think it’s the right thing to do. The school district is doing the wrong thing by restricting access to their accounts. All of the public deserves access to their social media pages and the information they post.”
ACLU of RI cooperating attorney David Cass stated: “Access to a City or Town’s social media accounts for information and comment is crucial for citizens to engage in discourse with their representatives. Improper restrictions of social media accounts by Cities and Towns hinder open discourse and access for meaningful participation with our government and diminishes our democracy.”
A copy of the complaint can be found here.
