Can public officials block you on social media? It's up to the Supreme Court

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Kevin Lindke, a frequent gadfly of the Port Huron, Mich., government, sued the city manager, James Freed, because Freed blocked him from his personal Facebook page.

Lindke says that he began posting comments on Freed's page at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic because he found information there that was not available elsewhere.

Freed "was putting out policy directives. He was issuing press statements," Lindke says. "This was the only place the information was being relayed to the community."

Freed says that he is not an elected official and that his personal Facebook page dates back to his college years. He says that he has maintained the page at home on his personal computer and that the constituent information that he put on Facebook was already public, through the city's communications office and local media.

"Eighty percent of the posts are my personal family photos, pictures of my dog. I'm a foodie. ... I like to show pictures where I go out to eat," says Freed. It is "not uncommon" to have people with "mental health challenges" target public officials, Freed observes. But he had always considered his page personal and under his control. "Had I thought for a moment that this page was public and I didn't control it, I would never have posted photos of my little girls or my wife."

The reference to people with mental health issues is not incidental.

While Freed says he has no specific memory of Lindke's comments on his Facebook page, he says he blocked Lindke because of his aggressive behavior. "For a good chunk of this case, he was incarcerated for stalking individuals," Freed says."...