TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Supreme Court Sets Free Speech Test for Officials Who Block Social Media Critics

Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Mar 15, 2024
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court today set a new standard for determining if public officials acted in a governmental capacity when blocking critics on social media — a test to be applied in lawsuits accusing them of violating the Constitution's First Amendment. Reuters reports that the justices, in a pair of unanimous rulings, threw out decisions by lower courts in cases from California and Michigan involving lawsuits brought by people who were blocked after posting criticisms on the social media accounts of local officials. The justices directed the lower courts to revisit the cases based on the new standard. First Amendment protections for free speech generally constrain government actors, not private individuals. Under the new test, officials are considered engaging in governmental action if they had "actual authority to speak on behalf of the state on a particular matter" and "purported to exercise that authority in the relevant posts."

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