Rep. Erin Paré illegally blocking citizens on Twitter/X? | "Take Back Title IX" bus vandalized in Carrboro
No. 77 — Jun. 16-Jun. 22, 2024
Rep. Erin Paré accused of illegally blocking constituents
Erin Paré, who represents House District 37 in Southwestern Wake County as a Republican, has been accused of violating constitutional rights by blocking users on her Twitter/X account, @ErinforNC:
Erin Pare @ErinforNC I have been retained by an @X user regarding you blocking your constituency here.
SCOTUS has ruled on this issue. I have reviewed (and archived) your work/gov’t account above.
Please unblock @X accounts as you are violating First Amendment rights.
— CryptoLawyer (@CryptoLawyerz) June 21, 2024
At least three more users responded to this post, with screenshots indicating that they had been blocked by the account as well.
Although the courts have ruled that elected officials can violate an individuals First Amendment rights by blocking them from a social media account, it's not quite so simple as Elected Official + Social Media + Block = Unconstitutional.
The most similar case I could find was Campbell v. Reisch from 2019, which involved a State Representative in Missouri. The Eighth Circuit Court in Campbell held that a Twitter account belonging to the representative was not being used in an "official capacity" because it was predominantly used to further her campaign.
According to an email from Paré's legislative assistant shared by one of the blocked users, the account in question is a campaign account, not an official account, and is not run by her legislative office. Based on a brief review, the general tenor of the posts do appear to be consistent with a campaign account, as well as the fundraising link in the bio and even the account's username, "ErinforNC".
If a court applied the Campbell standard, I believe that Paré's account would qualify as non-official, and thus not covered by First Amendment protections. However, North Carolina is not in the Eighth Circuit, and although I don't believe the Supreme Court has ruled on a case as directly similar, it has issued rulings applicable to the question.
I believe the most recent ruling on the matter from the SCOTUS may be Lindke v. Freed, released March 2024, which held that courts must consider whether the official "(1) had actual authority to speak on behalf of the State on a particular matter, and (2) purported to exercise that authority in the relevant posts" to determine if a protected "public forum" exists.
To sum it up (from my layman's perspective), although an appeal to the First Amendment may get you unblocked, it's very possible a court could find that Paré is not using the account in her "official capacity", and is thus free to block whomever she wishes.
"Take Back Title IX" bus vandalized in Carrboro
Pro-women group's tour bus vandalized for wanting to protect women’s sports - The Blaze
IWF's 'Take Back Title IX' Tour Bus Attacked, Vandalized With Profanity, Graphic Drawings - Outkick
Ahead Of Title IX’s 52nd Anniversary And Women’s Sports Week, Our Bodies, Our Sports Tour Bus Vandalized By Anti-Woman, Trans Rights Activists - Press Release
Pro-transgender vandal(s) took the opportunity to egg and deface a bus belonging to the Our Bodies, Our Sports “Take Back Title IX” cross-country tour after a stop at UNC-Chapel Hill. The tour was organized by the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) in opposition to allowing transgender-identifying men to participate in women's sports.
The images shared by the IWF of the vandalism included transgender slogans and drawings of genitalia; the vandals also crossed out signatures of supporters which had been collected across the county. According to the IWF, the incident has been reported to the Carrboro Police.
The Chapel Hill/Carrboro area is known to be a hotspot of antifa and leftist activism; the IWF also reported that a male pro-transgender activist threw a pen and swore at a female staffer at the UNC stop on the tour.
The Chapel Hill stop included former UNC Chapel Hill women’s basketball head coach Sylvia Hatchell, NC high-school athlete turned activist Payton McNabb, and NC State swimming champion Kylee Alons.
ICYMI
Federal Judge Dismisses Civil Rights Lawsuit over Anti-Lockdown Protester's Arrest
A federal judge has dismissed the civil rights lawsuit brought by Monica Ussery in relation to her arrest and prosecution for attending the first anti-lockdown ReopenNC protest in 2020. Raleigh Police famously declared that "protesting is a non-essential activity" when asked why they were shutting down the peaceable assembly.
That is Erin’s official account. Otherwise, my lawyer would not have called her out. He did his research. ErinforNC is her official account and my lawyer said so in his post.