ST. LOUIS — Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt are violating the First Amendment rights of constituents in the way they mute criticism on their social media accounts, according to two federal lawsuits filed Tuesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Washington University law school’s First Amendment clinic filed the suits on behalf of Sarah Felts of St. Louis and Dennis Enloe of Union, Missouri.
“The fact that a public official disagrees with you on an issue doesn’t mean they can silence you,†Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri, said in a news release Tuesday. “That holds true whether you’re speaking out in a public park, at a town hall meeting, or on social media.â€
Felts’ suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District alleged that , blocked from his page “because she made a post that was critical of President Reed’s actions and policies.†As a result, Felts’ suit claimed, “Reed has prevented Ms. Felts from participating in public discourse in a government-controlled public forum.â€
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Mary Goodman, Reed’s legislative director, said neither she nor Reed were aware Felts was blocked on Twitter until a Post-Dispatch reporter called Tuesday about the lawsuit. Goodman said it “seems like a minor issue†that Felts was blocked and that it “can literally be fixed at the click of a button.â€
A similar lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District accused Blunt of hiding Union resident Dennis Enloe’s critical comments on Blunt’s Facebook page.
Enloe’s lawsuit claims at least two of his comments were hidden from last year. One of them, the lawsuit claims, was on Aug. 31 when Enloe said of the senator’s visit to an Osborn, Missouri, farm: “Another mass shooting and Senator Blunt shows us cows. Will it ever be time to care about our murdered children? Will it ever be time to face this gun violence?â€
A spokesperson for Blunt could not be reached Tuesday.