Maine Gov Paul LePage Sued For Blocking Facebook Comments

The Maine chapter of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is taking Gov. Paul LePage to court for deleting comments and blocking users from his verified Facebook account.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in a federal court in Maine on behalf of two residents — who say they were blocked — is asking the court to deem the action unconstitutional.

It sought the Republican governor be stopped from “censoring” Facebook users and the restoration of posting privileges of those blocked.

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Similar lawsuits were filed on behalf of residents in Kentucky and Maryland, who say they were blocked by their governors on social media, by the ACLU.

In a press release Tuesday, the ACLU announced it was filing the lawsuit after the governor did not respond to their request to stop illegally “censoring” constituents on his account, Boston.com reported.

The legality of government officials blocking users from posting comments on their social media pages has come into question after President Donald Trump continued blocking users on his Twitter account, with some saying it violated the First Amendment.

In fact, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University has sued the president on behalf of blocked users, arguing that his personal account also constitutes a “public forum” where political debate occurs.

“This Twitter account operates as a 'designated public forum’ for First Amendment purposes, and accordingly the viewpoint-based blocking of our clients is unconstitutional,” read a letter sent by the institute to Trump in June.

“We ask that you unblock them and any others who have been blocked for similar reasons,” it continued.

Last month in a case treading similar grounds, a federal court determined that the First Amendment’s Free Speech clause does indeed prohibit officeholders from blocking social media users on the basis of their views.

In Davison v. Loudoun County, a Virginia resident named Brian Davison sued the county’s board of supervisors for deleting a negative comment he made on the chairwoman's Facebook page.

The chairwoman, Phyllis J. Randall, attempted to have the case dismissed by arguing that the social media page was her personal account. However, the court refused to dismiss the case and treated the account as an official government page.

“By prohibiting Plaintiff from participating in her online forum because she took offense at his claim that her colleagues in the County government had acted unethically, Defendant committed a cardinal sin under the First Amendment,” District Judge James C. Cacheris explained.

Cacheris also cited the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Packingham v. North Carolina, in which the court asserted that social media may now be “the most important” modern forum “for the exchange of views.”

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LePage offered a similar argument in his defense, stating his Facebook page is not an official government account. However, the ACLU argued it was the de-facto official account of the governor.

“The governor and his staff use the page to share information such as official announcements and press releases; that the page is described as 'Paul LePage’s official page' in the 'About' section; that the page has been 'verified' by Facebook as the governor’s page (which requires his approval); that as of July 24 the Facebook page was linked to from the governor’s official Maine.gov website (the link has since been removed); and that the governor has posted to the Facebook page several times in his official capacity,” ACLU pointed.

The jury is still out on how this will play out in court.