General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJudge rules in Wisconsin teen's favor after sheriff threatened jail over Covid post
A federal judge ruled that a Wisconsin sheriff violated free speech protections guaranteed by the first amendment when he asked a teen to remove an Instagram post about Covid-19 that upset local parents in March last year.
The teen, Amyiah Cohoon, and her parents sued the sheriffs department after a deputy threatened to arrest family members if Amyiah did not delete an Instagram post which described her experiences when possibly infected by Covid-19. She was 16 at the time.
Labeling censorship societally beneficial does not render it lawful, wrote Brett Ludwig, a district court judge in Milwaukee. If it did, nearly all censorship would evade first amendment scrutiny.
According to Ludwigs ruling, the post, made in mid-March 2020, was the subject of numerous calls to health and school officials in Marquette county. At the time, the county had not yet had a case of Covid-19.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/27/wisconsin-sheriff-covid-teen-instagram-post
malaise
(269,187 posts)Stop the fascists
LakeArenal
(28,847 posts)Last edited Tue Sep 28, 2021, 12:18 AM - Edit history (1)
It was blue until Republican gerrymandering. Sheriffs Department very red.
riversedge
(70,311 posts)Luke Berg, an attorney who represented Cohoon, told the paper the case was bizarre but a very strong statement that cops cant police social media.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)no wonder people hate them