“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  — Margaret Mead

Background

In June of 2016 members of Peachtree NORML began a practice of visiting official law enforcement Facebook pages when marijuana bust “brag” posts were put up.  We began expressing our opinions on those posts.  Those opinions were often deleted from these official pages and the citizens making them were blocked from commenting.  These actions are an abridgment of a citizen’s First Amendment Right to criticize a governmental official or entity.  Sheriff Joey Terrell of Habersham County, Georgia was one of the officials who deleted dissenting comments.  We decided to contact the ACLU, and they decided to take up our case for us.

The ACLU sent a letter to Sheriff Terrell, demanding that he cease the practice of deleting dissenting comments and restore commenting capabilities to those persons who had been blocked from the page.  Initially, Hunt & Taylor Law Group replied to the letter, stating the following:

I personally felt Sheriff Terrell was taking the coward’s way out but to his credit, so far, he has acquiesced to our demands, restored the ability to comment to those who were blocked, and is still allowing comment.  His post concerning the matter has a bit of a “whine” to it, though, and I’ll let you the reader determine if the Sheriff’s “personal” page is really personal, since it is riddled with the trappings of his Office.

Oaths

Elected officials in Georgia are required to swear several Oaths before taking office.  Among them is an Oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.  They don’t get to pick and choose which parts of it they will uphold.  They are answerable to US, and we need to hold their feet to the fire when they abridge our rights.

I hope this sends a clear message to ALL elected officials in Georgia regarding deleting dissenting comments from their Facebook pages.  If it doesn’t, and they persist, we’re prepared to take this to the Federal Courts.

Thank Yous

I want to thank Sean Young, ACLU GA’s Legal Director, Fallon Traylor (who was the Policy Advocate when this all got started), and Chris Bruce, the Policy Counsel, who pointed me in the right direction to make this happen.

I also want to thank all the members of Peachtree NORML who took screenshots and shared them with me.  Without them, this couldn’t have happened.  Thank you for standing up!!

Much respect for all of you.