A woman in Omaha, Nebraska, is suing the city’s mayor for violating her First Amendment right after he allegedly deleted her comment and blocked her from his official Facebook page after she complained about his failure to fix a large sinkhole near her home.
In a lawsuit, filed in Nebraska’s district court Monday, Omaha resident Lisa Kilker claims Mayor John Ewing Jr. deprived her of her right to participate in public discourse and is now preventing her from viewing public announcements.
The lawsuit alleges Ewing blocked Kilker from his official Facebook page in early October after she left a comment on a post criticizing him for failing to fulfill his campaign promise of fixing a large sinkhole that opened up in downtown Omaha near her condo building.
In the now-deleted comment, Kilker wrote: “The Regis building residents have just had to take out a $1 million loan to pay for repairs for the sinkhole. You ran a campaign on promising to help us. What happened to those promises??”
She says the act of deleting her comment and blocking her from the mayor’s page violates the First Amendment, as well as a recent Supreme Court ruling that declared public officials cannot prevent a person from commenting on a social media page if it’s used in an official capacity.
Omaha resident argues that the mayor’s Facebook page was a public forum and blocking her from it prevents her from seeing updates and city information (AFP via Getty Images)
The Independent has asked the mayor’s office for comment.
The sinkhole has existed for some time, but it became a major issue in January when the pavement opened up underneath a garbage truck, creating a massive hole in downtown Omaha. The sinkhole issue became a talking point during the city’s mayoral race earlier this year – Ewing, who was elected in June, had promised to address it.
Although work to repair the sinkhole and it’s underlying issue began in September, Kilker took to the mayor’s Facebook page in October to complain.
Kilker is now asking a federal judge to declare Ewing violated her First Amendment right, force Ewing to restore her access to his official Facebook page and award her damages to be determined by a jury.
The sinkhole became a talking point during the last election cycle (District Court of Nebraska)
In a statement posted to Ewing’s official Facebook page Tuesday, the mayor said the social media page is “used chiefly as a way to share updates,” and comments are usually disabled on posts.
“Inadvertently, but rarely, that feature was not always disabled. Going forward, every effort will be made to maintain a no comments policy,” Ewing’s post read.
Kilker acknowledged in her lawsuit that the mayor sometimes allows comments on posts but said he occasionally interacts with commenters, such as thanking a citizen who complimented his efforts.
Her comment about the sinkhole was specifically made on a now-deleted post where Ewing reposted an endorsement from a local citizen with the caption “#PublicService #empathy.” The post did not contain any information about the sinkhole.
Ewing was elected mayor of Omaha in June – among his campaign promises, he said he would address the sinkhole issue in downtown Omaha (City of Omaha)
In the Supreme Court case Linkde v. Freed (2024), justices ruled public officials could be sued for preventing citizens from commenting on their social media page, even if the account is personal, so long as they have the authority to speak on the government’s behalf or are purported to be doing so in the post in question.
Kilker argues that because the mayor’s page was “devoted to official City business,” he “suppressed protected citizen commentary” when he deleted her comment.
No hearing dates have been set for the case yet.
