The justices focus on spelling out the circumstances for deciding whether public officials were acting in their personal capacity when blocking critics or engaged in a 'state action.' The First Amendment constrains government actors but not private individuals.
WASHINGTON, DC, USA – The US Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 31, grappled with a pair of cases from California and Michigan involving public officials blocking critics on social media, with the justices struggling to define when such conduct runs into constitutional limits on the government’s ability to restrict speech.
The first case involves two public school board trustees from Poway, California who appealed a lower court’s ruling in favor of parents who sued them after being blocked from the personal accounts of the officials on X, called Twitter at the time, and Facebook. The second case involves a Michigan man’s appeal after a lower court rejected his lawsuit against a Port Huron city official who blocked him on Facebook.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan cited former President Donald Trump as an example, noting he did “a lot of government” on his Twitter account, sometimes even announcing policies. President Joe Biden’s administration sided with the officials in both cases argued on Tuesday. A ruling is expected by the end of June.
Some justices asked whether requiring public officials to include disclaimers on their personal pages making clear their social media activity is not governmental would help disentangle their private and public capacities.
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