ACLU sues Governor Hogan over deleted Facebook comments
Governor Larry Hogan is pretty active on Facebook , and shares posts about his family and his views on legislative items, but now that activity has him in some hot water.
The governor is now the subject of a lawsuit for how he and his administration allegedly handle comments on his account.
The ACLU of Maryland has filed a 27 page lawsuit against Governor Hogan, the lawsuit claims he has violated Marylanders 1st amendment rights.
"We filed this lawsuit on behalf of 4 individuals who have been blocked or had their comments deleted by governor Larry Hogan's official Facebook page," says Lisa Zycherman, from the ACLU of Maryland.
In the suit, the ACLU claims individuals have been blocked from expressing their opinion. They claim the comments left by these individuals did not contain derogatory language, but rather posed questions about the governor's stance on issues such as education and Syrian refugees in the country.
"One of the plaintiffs posted often about and education policy bill that have been coming up in the legislature. And she was asking the Governor to state his plan and position would be. Another plaintiff posted a response to governor Hogan's statement during the Obama administration that the federal government should not allow Syrian refugees into the country," says Zycherman.
Under the Governor's Social Media Policy, comments can be deleted if they're not about the posted topic or announcement. Another ground for deletion is if their comments are repetitive, a policy that the ACLU says is unconstitutional.
"It violates 1st amendment rights, it gives the governor unbridle discretion to delete or block individuals for making posts that they deem to be off topic, or irrelevant in some manner. The goal of this suit is for the judge to able to inform the governor about his violations and for the governor to change his practices," says Zycherman.
47 ABC reached out to the Governor's office for comment on this matter. A member of their communications department replied with this statement.
“This frivolous lawsuit is completely without merit, a waste of taxpayer dollars, and has more to do with partisan politics than anything else. The governor’s office has a very clear social media policy that fosters open and constructive dialogue, and we will continue to remove users that violate the policy. Ultimately, with all of the challenges we face in this country and across the globe, we can all agree that the ACLU should be focusing on more important issues than monitoring Facebook pages.” – Amelia Chassé, Deputy Communications Director.
