Vol. 37 No. 13 A STATE OFFICIAL VIOLATES FIRST AMENDMENT BY CREATING A PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE RELATED TO HIS OR HER OFFICIAL DUTIES AND THEN BLOCKING CERTAIN MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC FROM THAT PAGE BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF THEIR COMMENTS
In Garnier v. O’Connor-Ratcliff,[1] the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that members of a school district’s board of trustees acted under color state law by using their social media pages as public forums in carrying out their official duties. Then, applying First Amendment public forum criteria, the Court concluded that restrictions on certain individuals […]