BOONE COUNTY — Less than a month after it was filed, a complaint filed by the ACLU against the Boone County Commissioners has been dismissed.
The complaint alleged the County violated the First Amendment after blocking a resident from the Commissioners' Facebook page.
According to the stipulation of dismissal, the plaintiff, Boone County resident Kevin Dininger, has been unblocked from the page.
"The County further agrees that, on said Facebook page, it will not hide or delete user comments, ban or block users, or censor user comments based on viewpoints expressed by the users," the document read.
The agreement still allows the County to delete comments that are vulgar, obscene, defamatory, harrassing or threatening.
An internal investigation by the county found the blocking was "inadvertent."
A spokesperson for the Boone County Commissioners tells WRTV "the situation has been resolved to the satisfaction of all the parties."
The ACLU of Indiana shared the following statement:
"When a government entity opens up a space for public comment, it cannot regulate those comments based upon someone’s viewpoint. Boone County has agreed to refrain from censoring comments in the future and, while we are pleased that the County resolved the issue so promptly, this problem is not exclusive to Boone County. We hope other government entities and public officials will take notice to avoid further litigation."
