ACLU files lawsuit against Prescott

A Portland resident is suing State Rep. J.D. Prescott over access to his Facebook page.

In a press release issued Friday morning, American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana indicated that it has filed a lawsuit against Prescott for blocking Brandon Kloer, Portland, from his official Facebook page.

The suit filed in the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana’s Indianapolis Division alleges that being blocked from Prescott’s Facebook page is a violation of Kloer’s First Amendment rights. It seeks that the court declare Kloer’s rights have been violated and issue an injunction forcing Prescott to “unblock” Kloer, preventing him from “from blocking Facebook users in the future based on the viewpoints that they express” and restoring “any and all comments that have been censored from Representative Prescott’s Facebook page due to the viewpoints that they express.”

It also seeks that Kloer be awarded costs and attorney fees related to the lawsuit.

“The interactive portion of a public official’s Facebook page is considered a public forum, thus public officials cannot block constituents from commenting because of the opinions they hold,” said ACLU of Indiana senior attorney Gavin M. Rose in the release. “Representative Prescott’s practice of silencing citizens on Facebook who are critical of his positions is unconstitutional.”

The suit asserts that while Prescott’s page is called a “political candidate page” it is regularly used to post information about his activities as a legislator and as such doubles as his official legislative accounts. It says Kloer was “swiftly blocked” from the page after raising a question about Prescott’s position on school funding.

“I do not have an official government Facebook page,” said Prescott. “I have a campaign Facebook page.”

He said he had just learned about the suit and would need to contact his attorneys before putting out any other comments.

Kloer, who in March sent a letter to the editor to The Commercial Review regarding the same issue, said he sent letters to Prescott requesting that he be “un-blocked” but that he received no response.

“I didn’t want to bring the lawsuit,” said Kloer. “I just wanted to be unblocked from Rep. Prescott’s Facebook page.”

Prescott, who represents Jay and Randolph counties and part of Delaware County, is in the midst of his second term as a state representative. He serves on the state house’s ways and means committee and the committee regarding environmental affairs.

Brandon Kloer’s wife, Brittany, ran against Prescott in the 2020 Republican primary.