The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a town chairman was not entitled to “qualified immunity” from suit and can face individual liability after selectively deleting comments critical of his views from the town’s website. The Court concluded that when a government opens a website comment section to the public without restricting who may participate or what may be said, the comment section functions as a public forum. As a result, officials may not remove comments based on disagreement with the speaker’s viewpoint, even when the forum appears on a government-owned website.
The town’s website allowed anyone to comment on posts without restrictions on who could participate or what they could say. After the town’s chairman posted about proposed RV regulations, a resident and others posted comments disagreeing with his position. The chairman characterized several comments as “disrespectful,” deleted them, and threatened to prevent those commenters from posting.
The town later eliminated comment sections from its website altogether. A resident then sued the chairman and the town for violating her free speech rights under the First Amendment, which prohibits government officials from suppressing speech based on disagreement with the speaker’s viewpoint, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which makes those constitutional protections applicable to state and local governments.
The Court concluded that Board members could not selectively remove comments while the forum remained open, although the town remained free to eliminate comment sections on its website. The Court also noted that the town had no policy governing public comments, making it unreasonable to treat commenters’ views as government speech subject to editorial control.
For school districts and other public bodies, the decision serves as an important reminder that official websites and social media pages that permit public comment may create public forums. Institutions that choose to allow public comments on official websites or social media should adopt clear moderation guidelines and apply them consistently, regardless of whether officials agree with the views being expressed.
Accordingly, the Court upheld the trial court’s ruling denying qualified immunity to the official who now faces the prospect of individual civil rights monetary damages should the Court find that he violated the First Amendment rights of the Plaintiff.
As online engagement becomes an increasingly important part of how school districts communicate with students, parents, staff, and the community, contact any member of our Corporate Practice Group with questions about social media policies and public forum issues.
Source: Schulte v. Leners et.al., No. 25-1856 (7th Cir. Aug. 5, 2026)
