Supreme Court lays out new test for determining when public officials can be sued for blocking users on social media
CBSN
Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday clarified when a public official who blocks a constituent on social media may be sued for doing so. It sent a pair of disputes over whether local officials crossed a constitutional line when they blocked users for Facebook comments back to lower courts for further proceedings.
In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the first case, which involves a city manager from Port Huron, Michigan, the court laid out a two-pronged test for determining when a public official's speech on social media is attributable to the government and can therefore lead to litigation.
Under the new standard, an official is deemed a state actor online only if that official had "actual authority to speak" on the government's behalf, and "purported to exercise" that authority when speaking on social media. Social media users may then sue public officials for blocking them if those conditions are met, subjecting the government employees to First Amendment scrutiny.
We share our planet with maybe 10 million species of plants, animals, birds, fish, fungi and bugs. And to help identify them, millions of people are using a free phone app. "Currently we have about six million people using the platform every month," said Scott Loarie, the executive director of iNaturalist, a nonprofit.
Washington — As voters gear up for the midterm elections in November that will decide control of the House and Senate, the Supreme Court is set to weigh Monday whether states can count mail ballots that are postmarked by, but arrive after, Election Day.
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