Supreme Court justices expressed concern during oral arguments Tuesday about whether their rulings in a pair of social media blocking cases could have broad repercussions for elected officials communicating online.
The cases, which were brought against two California school board members and a Michigan city manager, focus on whether the government officials violated the First Amendment free speech rights of citizens whom they had blocked on their social media accounts.
That hinges on when a government official’s personal social media account becomes an official government account and should come with protections for access, and lower courts ruled differently in the two cases.
