Supreme Court lays out new test for determining when public officials can be sued for blocking users on social media

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.