Show Notes - Lindke v Freed
Show Notes - Lindke v Freed
Description
Episode # 77
On Friday, the Supreme Court handed down two decisions that deal with the extent to which a government employee is engaging in state action when posting on social media.
These cases are Lindke v Freed and O'Conner-Ratcliff v Garnier. The Supreme Court would grant cert on these cases to settle a circuit split.
In O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that two school board members violated the First Amendment when they blocked two parents from their personal Facebook and Twitter accounts, which they used to provide information about the board and its work.
But in Lindke v. Freed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that because James Freed, the Port Huron city manager, maintained his Facebook page on his own rather than as part of his job, he was not acting as a government official when he blocked a city resident – and therefore there was no First Amendment violation.
The government would create a new legal test that is to be applied to determine whether a government official is acting in their official capacity on social media, and therefor looking at when and how a decision to delete a comment or block a user from their social media page constitutes a first amendment violation.
This test is laid out in a unanimous decision authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the Lindke v Freed case. Ultimately, the Court would vacate and remand both cases back to the Circuit Courts for further proceedings, consistent with the Lindke Test.
To find the complete collection of cases that I am covering this term, as well as an update on their current status see: My Updated Supreme Court Roundup caseload
Links
Lindke v. Freed, 601 U.S. ___ (2024)
Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Christopher Garnier, 601 U. S. ____ (2024)
Garnier v. O'connor-Ratcliff, 513 F. Supp. 3d 1229 (S.D. Cal. 2021)
Christopher Garnier v. Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff, No. 21-55118 (9th Cir. 2022)
Other Resources
Richard Re - What A “Judgement Unit” Is
(see: Denotive Language in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross)
Past Episodes
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