Judge Rules Virginia Politician Violated First Amendment by Blocking Critic on Facebook

A judge has ruled that a Virginia politician violated the First Amendment when she blocked a vocal critic on Facebook.

Phyllis Randall, chairman of Loudon County’s Board of Supervisors, originally banned local critic Brian Davison from her Facebook page, “because his statements were critical of her actions while in office,” according to Consumerist.

“Davison sued Randall and the Board in federal court, arguing that his ban from the Facebook page was an illegal prior restraint based solely on his point of view,” they reported on Thursday. “A bench trial was held in May, and this week the judge in the case ruled against Randall, finding that even though she set up her ‘Chair Phyllis J. Randall’ page herself and outside of the county’s existing social media accounts, Randall was indeed acting in in a governmental capacity while operating that page.”

“That means the page is a forum for protected, free speech under both federal and Virginia state law, notes the judge in his opinion,” Consumerist continued.

The page was ruled to be an official government page after the judge discovered that the “about” section of the page linked to the county website, listed Randall as a government official, and provided government contact details.

“Plaintiff’s comment regarding alleged misconduct by County officials was obviously related to a question Defendant had fielded at a town hall earlier that evening,” ruled the judge. “Defendant banned Plaintiff from her Facebook page due to this criticism of her ‘colleagues’ in the County government.”

Over the past few months, several Twitter users have attempted to sue President Trump for blocking them, which they claim is a violation of the First Amendment.

“This Twitter account operates as a ‘designated public forum’ for First Amendment purposes, and accordingly the viewpoint-based blocking of our clients is unconstitutional,” claimed one legal letter sent to the President last month. “We ask that you unblock them and any others who have been blocked for similar reasons.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.