A day after lawsuit filed over state rep’s Facebook page, ‘critical comments’ are restored
Comments that were “critical” of an Illinois state representative were appearing Tuesday on his Facebook page after a Bond County lawyer filed a lawsuit alleging that hiding those comments violated the First Amendment rights of the four Illinois residents who made them.
Rep. Charlie Meier, a Republican from Okawville who represents the 109th House District in the metro-east, declined to comment Tuesday on the lawsuit and the status of the comments on his Facebook post from mid-April.
Tom DeVore, the attorney who represents the four plaintiffs, said Tuesday he would be interested in reaching a settlement of the lawsuit after seeing all of the comments had been restored to Meier’s page.
DeVore, who unsuccessfully ran as a Republican for Illinois attorney general in 2022, noted his clients are not seeking monetary damages from Meier but instead want a judge to order Meier to stop blocking comments on his Facebook page.
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Madison County court, doesn’t include specific comments that were critical of Meier, but DeVore said in an interview that one of the issues involves campaign donations by the Illinois Education Association, which is a union for teachers. DeVore said Meier has received $240,000 from the union since he took office in 2013.
The Facebook page targeted in the lawsuit is titled “Charlie Meier IL State Representative.”
The Belleville News-Democrat reviewed the comments on the April 17 post cited in the lawsuit on Monday night and only five could be seen although the post indicated that 12 comments had been made.
On Tuesday, after the lawsuit had been filed, all of the comments were visible, including those from two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and one from DeVore.
One of the plaintiffs, Roger Respondek of Clinton, commented “No more RINO’S!!,” which was not visible Monday. “RINO” is short for “Republican in Name Only” --
Another plaintiff, Sharon Williams of Belleville, uses the Facebook name of Sharon Ann. She posted a screenshot of a list of contributions the Illinois Education Association made to Meier. It also could not be seen Monday, but had been restored by Tuesday.
DeVore’s comment on the April 17 post said “Why are you censoring public comment Sir? Are constituents catching on to your taking all the Democrat teachers union money and you are trying to silence them?” That message also was restored to Meier’s post as of Tuesday.
The messages left without being hidden were largely positive. A commentor named Susan Jones, for example, wrote “You are one busy man. Thank you for all your hard work for our area.”
The lawsuit said the post in question was made on April 18 but DeVore acknowledged that the actual date was April 17.
The lawsuit also alleges that plaintiff Jared Poettker of New Baden had been “completely blocked” from Meier’s Facebook page. DeVore did not know Tuesday whether Poettker had been unblocked from the page.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that public officials may be held liable when they block social media comments by the public. Its ruling, however, leaves open a distinction between whether an official’s posts constitute government business or are simply personal comments on public affairs.
