Chaska MN has settled Noah McCourt's lawsuit for blocking access to its social media accounts.

From January 6, 2019:

Damn straight I'm paying close attention to Chaska MN, where disability rights activist Noah McCourt has filed suit over a social media ban.

Let's allow the news article to speak for itself. Congratulations to Noah; keep giving the stuffed shirts hell, my friend.

Chaska ordered to allow Waconia man to access its social media accounts, by Katy Read (Star Tribune)

His critical comments about city's police, its chief led to his being blocked.

A Waconia man has settled a suit with the city of Chaska for blocking his access to the city’s public social media accounts.

Noah McCourt received a $1,005 settlement, and the city was ordered to unblock his access, revise its social media policies and train its staffers on First Amendment applications to social media accounts.

McCourt also will have his legal fees reimbursed. He is policy director of the Minnesota Autism Council and a member of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities.

McCourt was blocked from the Chaska Police Department’s Twitter account for comments he posted about the department and from posting comments on the police Facebook page. Police Chief Scott Knight and Lt. Chris George were defendants in the suit.

McCourt said he criticized the Chaska police for “unnecessary roughness and aggression” when dealing with people with disabilities. He said he had also posted that Knight had “a very large ego.”

The city and McCourt agreed on an offer of judgment, under which the city agreed to the payment and policy changes in order to avoid lengthy litigation, said Hannah Felix, a lawyer with the League of Minnesota Cities who represented Chaska.

“For me it was never really about the money,” McCourt said. “It’s more like people just deserve to be treated equitably.”

McCourt has been unblocked from the Chaska accounts, and city officials are reviewing the “terms of use” policies on those accounts, said Kevin Wright, the city’s communications manager.

“There’ll still be a policy in place, and you’re going to have to abide by these guidelines in order to participate,” he said ... 

Damn straight I'm paying close attention to Chaska MN, where disability rights activist Noah McCourt has filed suit over a social media ban.

I richly enjoy keeping up with Noah McCourt.

You'll recall that in 2015, Noah and I got to know each other when he ran unsuccessfully for 6th district council (GOP) in New Albany. He later moved back to Minnesota and has stayed very much involved there.

Even from afar, Noah's principled activism is a joy. Who says young people don't get it?

Not me.

Given the many times local political players -- virtually all of them undemocratic Democrats -- have blocked social media access by NA Confidential, you can bet I'm keeping tabs on Noah's latest.

Disability rights activist files First Amendment suit challenging Chaska PD social media ban (Red Lake Nation News)

Noah McCourt is a well-known activist in the areas of mental health and disability rights. In addition to being appointed to the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, Noah serves on a number of non-profit and government boards. As part of his advocacy, Noah has been critical and sometimes litigates against government agencies that fail to provide inclusive services and accessible facilities for disabled people. He has filed suit against the Chaska Police Department over their social media policy after being banned from their Twitter site.

In November 2017, the Chaska Police Department started a Twitter site. The site is funded under the department’s budget. The site references a social media policy that allows the department to remove certain posts or people not using their proper names but it has no provision for banning people based on critical posts.

Noah began posting to the Chaska PD Twitter site shortly after it was started. Many of his posts were critical of Chaska PD’s handling of people in mental health crisis. In February 2018, he learned he had been blocked from the Chaska PD Twitter site. He was not notified by any Chaska employee that he was blocked and he was not provided with any process for challenging his exclusion from the site. He complained to the city but never got a response. Noah filed suit to challenge his exclusion from the site and the city’s social medial policy, which violates the First Amendment and encourages censorship of protected activity.

In explaining his lawsuit, Noah said, “When the Chaska PD started their Twitter site, they created a public forum. By excluding people from a public forum, they violate the First Amendment rights of those who disagree with them.”

Civil rights attorney Zorislav Leyderman stated “Noah’s lawsuit is believed to be one of the earliest to challenge social media censorship in the Eighth Circuit [which includes Minnesota] but there is strong precedent in decisions coming out of other federal circuits.”

In a May 2018 declaratory judgment in Knight Institute v Trump, Federal Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald found that Donald Trump violated the First Amendment when he blocked critics on social media. "This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, ‘block’ a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States. The answer to both questions is no.”

The case is expected to be heard in Federal Court later this year.