Federal Lawsuit Filed The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Communists can’t block opposing opinions.

One of the core purposes of the First Amendment is to allow people, regardless of their political views is to hold the government accountable through freedom of expression.

So, if you are an elected representative that has an official Email account and or Facebook page or Instagram page where you can send or post opinions and comments or where they invite comments, the government official cannot block you from commenting because you criticize their work or post opposing opinions.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in the past that the interactive portion of a public official’s Facebook page is a “public forum,” as is a political Email account so an elected official cannot block people from it because of the opinions they hold.

Individuals who hold public office wear two hats:

Sometimes, they act as private individuals, and other times they are government representatives.

Individuals always maintain their First Amendment rights when acting as private citizens and they can control their personal email account, but when they are wearing the government hat they cannot block access to their email and or government facebook social media account.

So if a public official blocks critics from the page or email because of their viewpoints, this person is in violation of the U.S. constitution. This is a serious constitutional violation.

Communists particularly in California forget we Americans have a right to criticize the government. This God given right is at the heart of the First Amendment.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has specifically recognized blocking as infringing on that right, noting that blocking someone in order to silence criticism of government work is itself evidence of government action.

Our God given First Amendment rights remain protected in our republic as it increasingly moves online.

The fact that a public official disagrees with you on an issue doesn’t mean he or she can silence you. That’s called Marxism and is the norm in Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Vietnam, China and Nicaragua.

Indeed, it means the opposite — and that holds true whether you’re speaking out in a public park, at a town hall meeting, in an email or on a Facebook page.

©2024. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

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