City Is Liable for Lewis Reed Blocking People on Twitter, Court Finds

Former Aldermanic President Lewis Reed may be in prison, but his actions still haunt the city he once presided over: A new ruling says the City of St. Louis is liable for his actions on Twitter (now X, but who actually calls it that, anyway?).

The ruling came yesterday from the 8th District Court of Appeals, which heard the city's appeal of a U.S. District Court ruling.

The suit was brought by the ACLU of Missouri and Washington University's First Amendment Clinic on behalf of Sarah Felts, who responded critically to one of Reed's 2019 tweets about the city's Workhouse — and was swiftly blocked. She sued, saying the block was an unconstitutional violation of her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

U.S. District Judge John A. Ross agreed, saying that Reed's block amounted to unacceptable "viewpoint discrimination." Since Reed primarily used the account for official business and not his campaign, the court found it amounted to a public forum and awarded Felts the $1 she had sought in damages.

Reed, of course, is now in prison, having been sentenced to 45 months for taking bribes. But the city chose to appeal the ruling, doing it under the auspices of now Aldermanic President Megan Green (who made clear she wanted "no part" in appealing the decision but apparently was overruled).

The city's argument amounted to, essentially, that Reed did not have the authority to make city policy on Twitter and started the Twitter account without city resources — so the city should be off the hook.

A three-judge appellate panel disagreed. "When Reed blocked Felts on Twitter, he executed a final municipal policy in his area of the City’s business, the office of the President of the Board of Aldermen," they concluded. They also noted that he blocked at least five other people who criticized him. "Reed’s decision to block Felts was a deliberate choice of a guiding principle and procedure to silence online critics." And that just isn't allowed.

In a statement, Felts said, “I am glad the Court spoke clearly: Our elected leaders may not abuse their authority to silence the people they represent just because they disagree. Twitter has empowered everyday citizens to engage with our elected officials more than ever before.

"I am grateful to the lawyers and law students at Wash U’s First Amendment Clinic and the lawyers at the ACLU of Missouri for working diligently to protect my First and 14th Amendment rights.”

So Lewis Reed may be the specter that haunts St. Louis City Hall, but at least now the city has clarity on a crucial point: You can't block your critics. Not unless you're only using Twitter (or, as it's since changed its name to, X) to tweet about things other than the people's business. It may feel like a cesspool, but it's actually a public forum.

Let the criticism flow! And let the city finally cough up that dollar it owes Sarah Felts, too.

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