Two New Orleans employees have filed a federal lawsuit against Mayor Latoya Cantrell and the city administrative officer over New Orleans’ social media policy, arguing that it unconstitutionally restricts their free-speech rights.
Plaintiffs Andrew Okun and Erin Wilson, who both work for the city’s library system, filed the lawsuit this month in the Eastern District of Louisiana. The Tulane University Law School First Amendment Clinic is representing them in litigation that argues the city policy attempts to regulate employees’ speech on their off-hours and while using private social media accounts.
“It’s the fundamental principle of our democracy that the government can’t retaliate against people – or silence them – based on the content of their speech,” law professor Katie Schwartzmann, who is representing Okun and Wilson in the lawsuit, said in a prepared statement. “Our clients bring this suit to challenge this intrusion onto their individual rights and the rights of fellow government employees.”
The plaintiffs are both active writers, content creators and producers of online material, according to the First Amendment Clinic. The city’s policy threatens employees with termination for engaging in different types of online communications, including taking a political position that someone might find offensive, the complaint says.
The policy’s prohibition against employees saying virtually anything critical of the city is “vague and overbroad,” Schwartzmann said in an email to the Louisiana Record.
A request for comment emailed to a city spokesman went unanswered, and Schwartzman said the plaintiffs had received no response yet from the city.
“Nothing has been filed by the city,” she said. “They have 60 days from the date of our filing to file a response into the record.”
The social media policy affects all city workers, according to the complaint, and the impact on free speech is a constant intrusion for the employees. It might also be a disincentive to employee whistleblowing, according to the First Amendment Critic.
“An employee can be fired for any speech critical of the city – regardless of whether that speech pertains to or has any impact upon the person’s job,” the lawsuit says. “The policy also provides for discipline or termination if an employee engages in ‘offensive’ speech, which is undefined by the policy. …”
The plaintiffs are asking the court to stop the city from enforcing the policy and to provide them reasonable attorney fees and nominal damages.