Supreme Transparency
  • Term
  • 2023-2024

Lindke v. Freed

Consolidated with O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier

Lindke v. Freed involved public officials’ use of social media and the permissibility of blocking constituents who criticize them. In Lindke, the Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of a city official who blocked a constituent from his Facebook page, holding that in doing so he was acting as a private citizen and not on behalf of the government. Petitioners argued that cutting off access to a public official violates the First Amendment. This case was argued alongside O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier, in which the lower court came to the opposite conclusion in a similar case.

On March 15, 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that public officials who block people who criticize them on social media can be held liable for First Amendment violations.

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Cato InstituteRead the amicus brief