Please join a growing list of community organizations that have called up local representatives in South Brooklyn to stop blocking people and deleting comments on social media.

Sign on to our open letter! 

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July 9, 2018

 Dear Representative Donovan, Senator Golden, and Assemblyperson Malliotakis,

Since last year, two federal courts have ruled that elected officials’ attempts to block critical comments on social media violate the First Amendment. On May 23, 2018, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled in Knight Institute v. Trump that the First Amendment bars the President from blocking critics on Twitter. Last year, in Davison v. Loudoun County Board of Supervisors et al., U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris found that public officials do not have the right to block people or delete comments from a Facebook account used for public purposes. “The Court cannot treat a First Amendment violation in this vital, developing forum differently than it would elsewhere,” Cacheris wrote, “simply because technology has made it easier to find alternative channels through which to disseminate one’s message.”

It’s come to our attention that you, or members of your staff, have blocked people, including your own constituents, on social media platforms following political disagreements. We call on you to remove these blocks. Likewise, comments made on public officials’ social media platforms should be respected as any other form of protected speech.

 We’d prefer not to have to fight to get you to respect the Constitution.

 Please feel free to reach out to us on Twitter or Facebook.

 Sincerely,

South Brooklyn for An Accountable Albany

South Brooklyn Progressive Resistance @SBPResist

Bay Ridge for Social Justice

Fight Back Bay Ridge @FightBackBR

South Brooklyn Progressive Network