City of Aledo Possibly Violates Civil Rights of Citizens

Yesterday the City of Aledo posted on its Official FaceBook Page   a important message about Recent Utility Billing Issues. We at RNS have confirmed from multiple sources that this is a internal issue caused by bad decisions (more to come later). 

Our current issue with this post? It seems that The City of Aledo has deleted comments on its Official FaceBook Page. If so, this maybe a Civil Rights Violation of the First Amendment. 

• First amendment violations are considered a violation of federal rights, so if you are sued for this, not only can your agency be sued, but you personally can be sued. Even if the judgement against you is only for $1, you are responsible for and required to pay all attorney and court fees – not just yours but the plantiff’s. This means your job, your home, and your assets could potentially be at risk.

• Deleting, hiding, and blocking are all the same when it comes to the first amendment, all three actions affected protected speech because you are limiting the reach of the comments by even one view.

There are three kinds of forums when it comes to speech: nonpublic, traditional public forum, and limited public forum.

1. A nonpublic forum is a place that has no first amendment rights, such as jail, prison or a classified area like a missile solo, etc. The supreme court has ruled on this.
2. A traditional public forum is sacred ground for free speech. It’s a place where people might come when they are mad, sad, or want to express their opinion about their government: think a public park, a plaza outside city hall, or another public space. This is the place where the government has the least power on what is said. Government agencies can’t regulate even hate speech or outright falsehoods. Snyder v Phelps 0 562 U.S. 442 (2011) - you can't use the argument of hate speech or the impression on others, other people’s emotional health, etc. (i.e. can't use the “the more I am offended the more right I have to ban” - really it’s “the more offensive the speech the more first amendment protection it gets”)
3.  In a limited public forum, speech can be regulated with TIME, PLACE, and MANNER restrictions (this is typically a city council meeting or something similar) - you can’t limit content (think of the Parks & Rec scene of yelling residents - “people yelling is people caring loudly”), incumbent protection (for critics - you can’t list who gets to speak)- can't say that they have to live in our town or people who will be positive. As of NOV 2, 2023 - Mayor Nick Stanley requires that you follow him for a minimum of 24 hours before you get to speak on his Official Mayor Nick Stanley FaceBook Page. We believe that this maybe a 1st Amendment Violation as well. 

The 5th Circuit Court of the United States, which governs Texas, ruled in 2021 that

government social media accounts are considered a limited public forum, which means agencies are impeding civil rights if they restrict protected speech on their channels.

 WHEN CAN MY CITY DELETE A FACEBOOK COMMENT? (and Other Social Media Issues) A link to TML (Texas Municipal League) can be found here and the document can be found below.

#DefendAledo #RulesForTheeAndNotForMe #RecallNickStanley