Colorado lawmakers couldn’t bother this session to cap home property taxes estimated to skyrocket 40-60%, but they made time to advance a bill allowing themselves to block critics on their personal social media accounts.
Coincidence?
We doubt it.
If the bill passes, state and local lawmakers won’t need a reason to block anyone they choose from seeing or commenting on social media accounts not paid for with taxpayer dollars or linked to government resources.
It’s basically a bipartisan effort to tell voters to F-off.
Here’s why the legislation is problematic:
But Catherine Ordoñez, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, noted that other U.S. circuit courts of appeal have held that “whether a public official blocking an individual on social media counts as state action turns not on whether the state pays for the Twitter account but on whether the social media account is used as a tool for governance.”
“Under the analysis of these circuit courts of appeal, legislators following the text of this bill will regularly violate the First Amendment rights of the individuals interacting with their social media accounts, producing more litigation,” Ordoñez said. “Further, this bill allows legislators to block someone for any reason, even though categories of speech articulated in this bill — like bullying, harassment and intimidation — are defined so broadly as to cover speech that is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
Damn them all for putting us on the same side as the ACLU.
Auon’tai “Tay” Anderson already blocks his personal Twitter page, which is where he posts responses to critical issues like shootings at East High School.
Anderson’s professional page hasn’t been updated since the shooting occurred last month, and he doesn’t allow comments unless he follows you.
Memo to state lawmakers, Tay Anderson is the very worst example upon which to base this cocky plot and shut down our freedom of speech.
This week the U.S. Supreme Court said it will review a California case this session in which school board members blocked constituents from commenting on their personal accounts as Anderson is already doing.
The legislature should not be wasting precious time on such unconstitutional garbage just days before adjourning.
Especially when they need to get their collective rears in gear and cap our property taxes as they promised.