Facing Lawsuit, Reinbold says Facebook Page "Not an official government page"
Alaska State Senator, part-time cake maker, and see-through mask connoisseur Lora Reinbold has quietly updated her political Facebook page to make sure everyone knows that it's "not an official government page."
Alaska State Senator, part-time cake maker, and see-through mask connoisseur Lora Reinbold has quietly updated her political Facebook page to make sure everyone knows that it's "not an official government page," but her updated Facebook disclaimer is unlikely to be a compelling argument in court.
This year, Reinbold was sued by constituent Bobbie McDow, who says the Alaska State Senator is suppressing free speech by banning her from the “Senator Lora Reinbold” Facebook page. The lawsuit claims that Reinbold banned the constituent because she posted "critiques of State Senator Reinbold’s position against wearing masks during a pandemic."
Since the lawsuit was filed earlier this year, Reinbold has updated the "Senator Lora Reinbold" Facebook page. It now states that it is "not an official government page" and is intended to keep her constituents informed.
Reinbold's Facebook page also states that "if the page heats up comments may be hidden, deleted or individuals banned or blocked."
I asked James Davis of the Northern Justice Project, an Anchorage Civil Rights firm representing McDow pro bono, whether the updated language Reinbold added to her Facebook page might in any way affect the outcome of the lawsuit. Davis told me, "absolutely not."
Davis argues that politicians cannot block critics from their social media accounts once they take comments from constituents in a 'public forum.' To do so would be to break the law.
Roughly two years ago, a federal appeals court unanimously ruled that Virginia politician Phyllis Randall violated the Constitution by temporarily blocking a critic from their Facebook page.
Circuit Judge James Wynn rejected Randall’s argument that her Facebook page was a private website, writing that the interactive component of her Facebook page was a public forum and that Randall engaged in "illegal viewpoint discrimination." The constituent’s speech “occupies the core of the protection afforded by the First Amendment,” Wynn wrote.
As of today, the "Senator Lora Reinbold" Facebook page is active and still accepting comments from those interested in the Alaska State Senator's political posts.
