Court Rejects Qualified Immunity Claim Over Town Website Comment Deletions
A federal appeals panel ruled that the Cedar Lake town chairman’s removal of online comments violated the First Amendment and denied his qualified-immunity defense.
In Schulte v. Leners, the Seventh Circuit concluded that the Cedar Lake town website’s comment area functioned as a public forum at the time Kenneth Leners removed dissenting remarks about his recreational-vehicle policy. The judges—Frank Easterbrook, Doris Pryor and Joshua Kolar—determined that Leners’ actions constituted viewpoint discrimination, which the First Amendment forbids. Although Leners claimed the issue was unsettled in 2022 and sought qualified immunity, the panel noted that Supreme Court and circuit precedent already required government-hosted forums to treat all speech equally.
The court rejected his argument that the forum could be deemed government speech or that online comment sections were legally distinct. Consequently, the case will move forward, with plaintiff Elizabeth Schulte represented by attorneys from McDermott Will & Schulte and Weld Riley.
Why it matters
It clarifies that government-run online forums cannot silence critics based on their views.
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